It's almost June, what happened?

 I can't believe it's almost June, summer has finally arrived.  I'm not an outdoor's person, so I'm not planting stuff in the garden - that is hubby's job.  I do like to can in the fall, especially when I can do it all out of our garden.  So he had the garden pretty well in and I'm excited about the vegetables.

I missed posting for April, I'm not sure what all I would have had to post.  I'm still struggling with my computer. I do have a lot of the information back from an old back-up.  I really wanted my pictures and music, and it was nice to get our tax returns back as well.  I'm hoping that the pictures that I've been taking have loaded up OK.

So the question was about Seminars and/or retreats that we've attended and what did we like about them.  I've not done a retreat in several year now, the last one was with our stitching group in CA before I moved back east.  I like that it wasn't really structured, we just all got together and stitched on whatever we wanted.  There were people who came with only one or two projects and that is what they stitched for the 3 day weekend.  Then there were people like me who packed about 10 or 12 projects so I could change as often as I wanted.  I did do a zoom kind of stitch thingy, it was for a needlepoint - I was hoping for interaction with other stitchers and the host, but they blocked any conversation and you basically saw the host demo the stitch and do all the talking.  I was so disappointed that I have avoided any additional zoom classes.  No one was stitching and everyone had deer in the headlight looks on their face.  I'm glad I was experienced enough that I really didn't need the lessons on how to do the stitch, I really wanted the interaction, which I didn't get.

So what have I done since my last posting?

I had a new start.  One of the chores that I did in February and March was go through all my charts and re-list them.  This needed to be done as we had a broken pipe in our basement in KY and one of the casualties was my charts.  I wasn't there, so my daughter said she "only" trashed charts that were not able to be saved, and assured me there weren't many.  However by my count I lost about 100 charts :( and some of them were ones that I really wanted to do and unfortunately the charts are not available anymore.  I am happy that I took so many with me to CA, anyways one of the charts I found was the baby sampler I did for my daughter.  It was a kit and I didn't save any of the threads and the instructions leave something to be desired.  I'm re-creating it for her daughter and this is the first part of it, I took a picture of the completed chart when I was in KY the last time and I'm following the colors the best that I can.  I have the row of ducks done, and one or two more boxes outlined.  It will come out again in June and I hope to get more of the boxes done.  The name, date etc. will go in last.

I did get one square done on my Noah's ark Afghan - the Raccoons.  I didn't have enough threads to finish the raccoon in the back, so finally got it and finished it up.  It only took about an hour to do, took me a month to get the tread LOL - no one carries DMC Perle cotton anymore - I think I finally found it at a needlepoint shop in KY.

Next up are Squirrels, not sure if I will pull it out and work on it again.  I can do a square in about 8 hours, so maybe if I have a big chunk of time I will pull it out.  

Next up is my Dog's Last Will and Testimony.  The top row is completed and I'm working on the words.  I has off, but have decided it's not worth ripppppping it out and re-doing.  So I've been adjusting as I go.  Hopefully I will be back on track and not have to worry about it.  I really like this one, and it will come out again.  Its not very wide, but it is long - 341 stitches long!!  I really like the colors, I'm a warm color type person if you can't tell.

Next up is my Mercy-Mercy.  This is an old picture, I have the border completely around the top and the peacock on the left as you look at it completed and most of the words in that first row done and words started on the next row.  This one isn't very large, so I'm hoping for a finish this year.  I want to hang this up in my granddaughter's room.  I have another sampler that I will start maybe in July about an Independent Woman....yup I'm into saying right now.  This one is out on my stitching table to work on, so will be picking it back up soon.

Then I put some time in on my Mary Ann Aldred Sampler.  This was an exclusive from a FB group.  Not a lot done, but that is about 9 hours of stitch.  I'm thinking I have the tree in the middle done, but that might just be wishful thinking.  I'm not a big border person, and something that is the same all the way around generally doesn't appeal to me, but figured this one wasn't too bad.  There is a big swan in the middle and that is what drew me to the chart.  It is charted with an open mouth and a closed mouth.  I'm thinking I will do the closed as I'm not fond of how it looks open.  

Then I pulled out my Family by Dragon Dreams.  I don't think they are charting anymore.  This one has the sign language for Family in the middle and the words in different languages going all around it.  My goal was to have all the words done, but I think I over estimated what I could do.  Doing the words are pretty boring, but I have it out where I can reach it, and will try to get more done before it goes away for a long sleep.  I had to re-do the hand because I was so far off.  One of my WIPGO is do finish the hand that is started and then I think I have another square to do the other hand.  I would like this one completed this year, and I'm hoping that having it on the WIPGO board will help inspire me to work on it more.  However I have to admit, I have my Nora Corbett Letter A Mermaid and of the 5 hours I needed to put in, I only put on hour in because I really don't enjoy working on it.  I know I should just abandon it, but its over 1/2 done and I really need to get it one.

The last two pictures are finishes!!  The first is my Tomayto-Tomahto.  It will go into a small wool tray.  I wanted to try something new, and this will give me a chance to finish it as a tray.  There is also a smaller design in the kit that is just the word Tomayto and you finish it into a tomato.  That should not take too long to do, but it will be a while before I pull it out to work on.  This was one that when I started to get close to a finish I just couldn't put it down.  I love the start and I love the finish, it's just everything in-between that seems to linger forever.

The last picture is my Women's Right to Vote, and it's the last of 3 that I did.  I need to get it framed and then I'll give one to each of my daughters.  We are family of voters - we loved being one of the first 10 in line to vote at our polling place.  One day we'll be back to voting as a family.

So that is what I've been working on for the past 2 months.  

Work has been crazy this month, but the worst should be over with by the end of the day tomorrow.  Then we'll go back to just being overly busy.  Unfortunately we have a hard time finding more people to work, they don't have a hard time finding more work for us all to do.  

Young people don't want to tie themselves down to one aspect of accounting, and since it takes 3 years to really learn my job, they don't want to spend that much time learning it when they can be a general accountant and have 3 years of promotions and advancements.  Oh well, it will keep me employed until it doesn't, but not going to worry about it anymore.  My agreement with my employer is that I will work for less money, but I won't be working mega overtime anymore.  I use to work 50 hours a week for a normal week and 60 plus when we were in our busy time.  I don't want that anymore, I don't care if I'm promoted, I don't want to be in-charge anymore.  I want more stitching time and less stress in my life.