On the way to completion

This week I decided that the basket of projects needed some attention and so
1) the embroidered Japan Box was put in a tin and put in a cupboard.   I am not good at free embroidery and prefer the constraints of counting on linen.   So the box is put away until inspiration strikes again.  It is not yet at the point where I can see completion ahead so...
2) The hardanger tassels were cut out and stitched up and.....oh no!  I have no DMC 712 to make the tassels and no time to go to the store.  So this finish is half done :(

3) The Betsy Morgan Etui had been stitched and prepared for completion before the big shift and I am well on the way now.   Home base is in sight and I'll have this done by the end of the week - Filial Duties and Family Visits not withstanding. 

I am rather pleased with how this is turning out. 

But have discovered that I really miss my needlework store The Ribbon Rose for the "extras"   This needs a couple of suitable beads to finish the closures and some wool felt for the needlebook pages.  Here in The New City we have a Spotlight (big box store of Australian origins) and they can supply DMC thread and basic white and antique white Cashel and Belfast Linen but anything else will be mail order now.   I hadn't really listed a needlework stork in the necessities when we chose Palmerston North!!
Today I tackled some of the garden kept company by a Songbird Thrush who was delighted to scoff the snails I uncovered.  He and I will become closer friends in the days ahead -  there is a lot of garden at this place.   I have cut back, pulled out, dead headed and cleaned up about a quarter and have already had two trips to the Green Waste Dept at the Resource Recovery Centre.   The back garden will go into vegetables but the front is supposed to be pretty flowers - we shall see.

Sometimes life gets in the way of stitching

My secondary career as "carer for the DBEM" sometimes gets in the way of my stitching time and there hasn't been a lot produced over the last little while.
The DBEM has painstakingly knitted a small sweater for the newest great grandchild and I have duly sewn it up, added the buttons, wrapped the parcel and conveyed it to the Post Office.   The final great grandchild in this current batch is due this week and the DBEM is on tenterhooks with excitement!
Apart from cooking, cleaning and general life administration I have completed another Christmas Ornament.
I know I said I wouldn't stitch another ornament over one thread on 32 count linen but I needed to do so to get the appropriate size for the finish I have in mind.   So after some teeth grinding and a few sighs here we are....

And I finished off the Elf - after a long and methodical search for the teeny tiny bell I knew I had somewhere....

And I have now completed the top and the bottom of the box for the Inspirations Etui.   This may be a Betsy Morgan design but the chart is not identical to the photograph in the Inspirations magazine.  And although I am using the specified Gloriana Silk colour floss the School House red is not at all like the variant photographed in the magazine.   I did make a change from the red on the top as it was too "in your face"   I also swapped out the variegated silk specified for the squirrel as he came out stripey and I couldn't abide that - so he's done in a DMC matching the lightest shade of the variegated and I will live with this.

There are supposed to be initials - one on each side of the base of the tree - but I have yet to make my mind up about those so at the moment the 'forest floor' is bare. 
This week promises to be really busy and apart from my daily Temperature Chart I don't anticipate getting any stitching done.   Oh well there's always the next week...

New Project

Great progress so far on my new project.   The Gloriana Silks are so smooth to stitch with.   I am really enjoying this....although the Inspirations Magazine charts are not that easy to deal with.
Progress shot.