More little things...

Much is happening here, but most isn't really shareable.  Or somehow it seems that way.  Truthfully, the visible part of what we are doing is so mundane it isn't worth writing about here.  The emotional part is yet to be fully realized, I suspect.

We're moving into a new stage where I can feel free to make decisions about my brother's things that I've not felt free to before now.  It is good to be at this place because it will start freeing up our home, but there is an emotional cost to this that I don't know how to count right now.  On the surface it feels something like relief, but deep down it feels like something else.  Another loss. 

Sigh.

Meanwhile, while I ponder this somewhat elusive place I am in, stuff does get done.  I do laundry.  I grocery shop. I cook and eat.  Too much.  That last thing doesn't help, I know.  I go to doctor's appointments.  They tell me to eat better and get more exercise.

I know.  I know...    

I will.

And I stitch.  I'm so thankful God gave me this gift of enjoying making things with my hands.  

This week I stitched a little on the bunny cross stitch I showed last week - it's nearly done.  And I kitted up a small seasonal project I'd like to start soon.  And of course I don't want to totally neglect the mystery sampler I'm only 7 months behind on, but I have completely ignored it for a week now.

Today I have crochet to show.  I got out some pretty spring-colored crochet threads and made two more little doilies from the book, 99 Little Doilies by Patricia Kristoffersen.

Doily #4, which I'm calling Sweet Thing:

and Doily # 24 - which I've dubbed "Parasol": 

I'll just say upfront, I did #24 wrong.  But that's okay.  That makes mine an original.  And a good blocking made it all better.  Truth be told, I like my mistake better than the original.  Isn't it nice when that happens?  😊  This one I made with size 3 thread, which means it's thicker than a typical doily, and it should make a nice little coaster.  That center part is just the right size for fitting under a glass.

That's it!  That's all I've got on the crafty front - on this second day of spring!    Well that and tomorrow I'm scheduled for my second Pfizer COVID vaccine.  Yay!  Moving closer to normal!

Good news & some spring stitching...

Good news this week!  I received and accepted an offer on my brother's house last Monday!  It's a few more weeks until closing (possibly a month), but I'm feeling relieved to (hopefully) have finished most of the work involved in getting the house ready to sell.  We still need to move a few things off the property, but that doesn't feel like too monumental of a task at this point.  Mustn't grow weary now!

On the crafting front...  after seeing Sandy's cross stitched bunny last week (at Home Ec Major) I had an irresistible urge to cross stitch a bunny, too.   So I found one, and now about half-way done, I think I might get it finished before Easter:

Also, I finished Part 4 on the Linen & Thread 2020 SAL, and added some smaller pictures:

Trying to decide if that is too busy there (in the center of the above picture), and if I should go lighter in filling in blank  spaces.  I've seen a couple that are really full and they are fun to look at.  On the other hand, I wonder if it's too much.  The wonderful thing about a sampler is that it doesn't have to look the same throughout.  So maybe I'll experiment.  

And that's really all I've got.  I think the upcoming week will be busy - hopefully, that translates into feeling productive.  It just now occurred to me (for some reason)...   Heading into tax season, we need to not only get our own taxes done, but gather and take necessary stuff to the accountant for both my MIL's and my brother's estates.  

The nuttiness of that just struck me.  

😧

Breathing deep... 

We will get to the other side of this.

If you have posted a comment to me under the name of Glenda, please e-mail me via the address found on my profile.  I will be happy to answer your question privately.  Thanks!

Some stitching...

So, back in May of 2020, Part 1 of my Linen & Threads sampler looked like this:

And after adding most of Part 4, this busy little corner looks like this:

Never having exactly the same lighting when taking photos, I end up with slightly different shades of red showing up in the photos.  

Wishing now I had thought to take a larger (or whole) picture after every part was completed, I'm going to try to remember to do that - maybe I'll post that picture once a month.  Or maybe it will be more fun to just reveal it all when it's all completed.  I'll give that some thought. 

Meanwhile... this is what the whole thing looks like on this first Sunday in March.  Almost 1/3 finished:

While it's felt like I've let this thing languish and haven't accomplished much, it's kind of inspiring to see what the whole thing looks like to date - especially in a photo.   It inspires me to maybe be a little more diligent about working on it.   

A photo of the whole thing will also better show the smaller, extra motifs I plan to add to fill in some of the spaces - spaces that were originally designed to add initials of friends and family.  I didn't really want to have a lot of initials scattered throughout the sampler - so when I saw some other stitchers adding motifs in place of the initials, I knew I wanted to try to do that instead.  I'm finding motifs in a variety of places (some books I own, some OOP books I've found online, some free from blogging cross stitch designers) - the online sources I've linked to way down at the bottom of my blog.  👇  My hope is it will look a bit like an Eye Spy picture, and will provide on-going interest and even a bit of whimsy to the finished project.  Wish me well in that.  😉

~~~~~

And Tag No. 10 in the #52 Tag challenge was easily finished yesterday:

The "theme" of this one is Suffolk Puff (I've always known these as Yo-Yo's), and Lace.

And that's another wrap for another week!  It's gorgeous today, and supposed to be in the 60's several days this week!  I could almost cry with happiness.  😂