Change of pace

I really have run with my Jeannette Douglas Stitching Album......     I picked up the project and planned to just 'look' at it after my last installment arrived.    We know how that goes.   I finished the front cover, started and finished the back cover and I am now working on Chapter 1 - Mosaic Muse.   This project is a joy to work with.   It is so rewarding to be able to see a completion....unlike my etui that I am working on.  I had to put the etui aside until after Christmas.   Mentally I need a break from it.  I seemed to just have hit a wall on completing the project.   I think it is because there is so much stitching.   I keep stitching and stitching and still am not seeing a completion.    When I pick it up again I will have to put my stitching in super high speed to complete the fourth side. 

I found a Hancock Fabrics while away for the weekend and was able to buy the silk fabric I needed for the back of each page of the Stitching Album.   The Hancock  Frabics in my area all closed and I didn't even know they were still open elsewhere.  Anyway, I was also able to get the buckram interfacing suggested.   Still no  luck with finding skirtex.    I hesitate to order anything I find on the internet without first being able to see it.   Oh well, the skirtex is not for this project but just something I need to add to my finishing stash.   Back to the Stitching Album - Since the front and back cover are mainly in blues and greens, I got a pretty blue for finishing the backs.  For the other pages, I got the suggested beige.   Hope I not being too bold with the blue but I thought of a true hardcover book and those inside cover pages are often pretty colors!   Can't remember the names of those pages.....I think they have a special name other than inside front cover.    I don't know if I will actually finish the pages - grommets and all - because that is part that takes some nerve to do.   I always hesitate when it is time to cut apart my stitching to assemble it.   Talk about measuring twice and cutting once.   Try measuring thrice!  Not much progress to share on the Mosiac Muse page but I will get there...

I had hoped to start the decorating the house  when I returned home this week.   Mr. W and I did get some of the outside done.  boo hiss, I am really behind on this.   Next year I am taking off the week of Thanksgiving to get this accomplished.   I get myself so overwhelmed with so much to do that I don't know where to start.   I have to remember that touch it once and handle it method that I use at work to clear my desk.    I kind of did that yesterday.....kind of.    I have so much stuff in the closets in the bedrooms that use as my 'staging' and 'wrapping' areas.   This all from my son.  Things he never took when he moved out.  So I bit the bullet and started packing up the stuff.   I have at least a dozen boxes that are being moved to the attic area of the garage.  And a couple of 'yard sale' boxes as well.   I just had this mental block thing that there was too much stuff unresolved in the house that how could I bring in all the holiday decorations from the garage and add to the mess.  So like i said, I bit the bullet and spent the day sorting and cleaning.   I may not have gotten too many decorations done but at least now when the holiday decorations are taken down, I will already have packed and removed my son's items. 

This should be a hectic week after being off  a day and a half last week.   My boss was in NYC most of the week doing a presentation so we will hit the ground running today.  I know I will be doing a lot of shopping during lunch hours this week picking up stocking stuffers, wrapping paper and such.  All the more reason to have a short and sweet stitching project to work on in the evenings when I finally put my feet up.