OW. WEE.

Stewey can't come to the blog right now. He's grounded. Forever. I won't air our family laundry in public, but let's just say that Mommie Dearest is not very happy about the attitude we've been experiencing around here lately. So I put the proverbial foot down and decided to just be. the. mom.

I re-started LHN's "My Needle's Work", but got so bored with it that I almost fell asleep with the needle in hand:

So I did what any rational person would do. I woke up and fretted over it for about an hour and a half and then decided to...wait for it....just stitch something else! Whew! For a minute there you thought I was going to say that I just gave up and went to bed, weren't you? Well, I didn't. I picked up something else. So there.

"Shepherd's Spring" is coming along nicely, and I might even get this one finished and into a frame before the end of the week! The linen is a little different than the linen that I usually use, so I'm learning how to adjust a bit, but this sure is fun to stitch! I highly recommend these long samplers if you want variety and the chance to stitch with beautiful silks:
I also recommend trying a canvas work piece if you'd like to transition from cross stitch to needlepoint. Here I thought I was some kind of genius in thinking about how one might progress as a stitcher (cross stitch on Aida, cross stitch on linen, canvas work, painted canvas, hardanger, crewel, etc. etc.), when I see that Debbie Rowley is actually teaching a class on this very subject at the summer market in Columbus!

This, of course, makes me want to run right over to Laura J. Perin's website and order every single chart that I don't already own and start stitching them immediately. I am particularly lusting over "Pineapple Quilt", "Cut Glass Dishes" and "Bargello Roses", so we'll see how long I can hold out before I go get myself in major trouble. (Besides, I have Stewey's allowance in my pocket and since he's NOT GETTING IT THIS WEEK, I just might go treat myself a bit.)

I had a bit of a mishap while making fajitas last night. I was practicing my knife skills and ended up doing a number on the naughty finger on my left hand. Fortunately, this in no way impedes my stitching, so please don't cry for me Buffalo: The funny thing about this is that I was thinking to myself "Gee, if I was a contestant on Food Network, they would be talking about how carefully I'm julienning these peppers and then maybe Chef Robert Irvine would immediately be attracted to me and then I would be able to meet him in person and say "Hello, Darling! You're my very favorite Valentine" and then we would go to dinner and have wine and talk about food and art and books and life and perhaps I would be able to entice him to go see a movie or a play or something else in the performing arts and we would stroll the streets of New York together hand in hand and live happily ever after the end."

And that's when I cut my finger off. (Well, almost anyway.)