I've been a lurking about

I have been so absent from posting. I have only posted the necessary posts for Tusal, Oldest Project Stitch Along and WIPocolypse but I have checked in to follow all your fab posts, wonderful progress and finishes. It is like a kid window shopping in a candy store.....but anyway....

Where have I been? Well, let's see.....no where special. Nothing fabulous that I did to report. I did take a Hearth Cooking Class in Old New Castle (DE).   It was my fourth year and we all had a good time.   I did finish reading The Lovely Bones but I can't get into A Time In Between.   I guess I am in a slump. No, truth is, I think I need to allocate my time better. Really? I actually have more hours in the day then most according to friends that claim they don't know how I do what I do. So what is it? Hmmmmmm, I think I go overboard (think??)......

Here's the deal, when I start something, I go hog wild then I hit the point of where I become exhausted because starting something new does not mean backing off of anything you already do.   Right?   Nothing to do with I can't do what I did when I was 20 years younger and haven't realized that yet. Nothing to do with thinking I can do it all. Nothing to do with I try to do too much. I am thinking my slump is because I started exercising again three mornings a week. And by mornings I mean I am in the gym at 6:15. After being off the routine for two months with a bad knee it is wearing me out to get back into. No dramatic weight loss to report or no increased comfort around the midsection with the jeans but in salute of healthy heart month, I am getting heart healthy. The down side is I am totally pooped at night. I am hoping that given a few more weeks my energy level will be back.  Maybe I should start up those daily vitamins!  You think?

I have been dedicating my stitching time to completing the assembly of my etui.....putting in an hour 4 or 5 nights in the last two weeks and I am getting close....and here it is again.....I have gone overboard and have worked almost on it almost exclusively.....which is so out of the norm for me. I have more projects going then you can shake a stick at and to be decide to work exclusively on something it a new concept. Oh the times they are a changing.  I admit it is making me antsy.   I really want to work on something else but I am trying to stay true and look at what I want in the end (to be finished) and not the eye candy right in front of me to start.   Stay the course is what I am telling myself.

I have all the sides assembled together and the bottom attached. It won't be long now.

I did take a small (and necessary) sidetrack to work on my oldest project. I was stunned to realized with posting the my progress for Evalina's Oldest UFO SAL at This and That, that I had not added a stitch all month. This is what I stitched last night while watching The Bodyguard, an all time favorite movie of mine. The difference the back stitching makes. I don't want to go overboard and put pressure on myself with this one but I feel pretty sure I will be able to move it to the

finished column by my retreat goal. 

 

This is just one section of the entire piece but I am getting there and I will be proud of my perserverance when I get this off the scroll bars, cleaned and framed!  Twenty years in the making!!!  I can date it because I know I took this on the plane with me on my first cruise in Feb. 1993 and it was already started at that point.  This was probably my first big cross stitch.

Here is the overall piece as it was in December....see not much accomplished but also, not much to do to finish.   I must remember my mantra.....Stay the course......stay the course..... Between this one and the etui, I am sure I will feel like a reward of a bit of stash enhancement or a new start come Retreat!