IT'S MC STEAMY!

Nope, not THAT McSteamy...just your good old average mid-July weather related steamy.  You know what I'm talking about....temps in the 80's and humidities the same.

In short, total hell for a portly spinster who positively detests sweating, which is something I am capable of doing in the shower.

(What can I say?  I'm built for comfort, not for speed.  Besides, given my portliness, I am not too keen on exposing any body parts (like arms and legs) to the overall general public, so turtlenecks and ski pants can look a little ca-razy on a day like today.)

Stewey, of course, is loving the heat and scritches at the back door every six and a half minutes so that he can plop himself on the back patio to tan.  I think he must like the warmth that comes off of the cement, but I, for one, am perfectly happy to look at the scorching stuff from the cool and friendly confines of my Happy Chair.

I've made a fair amount of progress on my canvas.  But before I show you pictures, I need to try to explain why I am such a freakin' boob when it comes to telling y'all where this one came from.  As you might remember, this canvas was purchased from the rock stars at Wool & Willow in Cleveland.  At the time, I told everybody that this was a "Rishfeld Designs" canvas, because the name "Rishfeld Designs" is printed at the bottom of the canvas.  There's even an item number next to the words "Rishfeld Designs", so I told you and everybody who asked that  this is a "Rishfeld Designs" canvas. 

So here's where the boob part comes in.

Apparently, this canvas is found on the SUSAN ROBERTS web site.  Now why I didn't know to tell you that this is a SUSAN ROBERTS canvas, I'll never know, but will you all please forgive me for leading you astray?  I hate it when I get stuff like this wrong, since I really do try to give the proper credit where credit it due, so believe me when I tell you that this was in no way intentional.  All I know is that I am still loving every single stitch of this piece, and if you decide that you would like to stitch it too, look on the SUSAN ROBERTS site under the artist Janice Gaynor, and you'll be all set.

Sorry for the confusion.

When last we left our heroine, she was fretting over what to do with the leaves.  During the course of the last few weeks I tried several different fibers and stitches, mulled and mulled them, asked anybody who would look in my general direction what they thought, and then finally decided to do this:

I know, I know, you're scratching your head right about now and saying "Decided to do what, exactly?", but if you look at the leaves, you might detect a very faint sparkle here and there that is the result of me doing a skip tent stitch with a lovely light green Sparkle Braid that I found in my stash.  It's subtle, I know, but the shading on those leaves is so darn pretty that I really wanted to let it come through.  Thanks to a remembered hint from Miss Jane at Chilly Hollow a few years back on another canvas I was playing with, I gave it a go and decided that I quite like the results.

Methinks I might actually finish this one today, and then it's off to the beading portion of the program.  I'm hoping that I might tart this up with some fancy schmancy crystals and such, so stay tuned and get ready for the big reveal with the next decade or so.

If I get all of my chores done, my Needlepoint Now column written, and adequate tummy-rub time given to Stewey, I might start the Zecca bird canvas.  I had thought that I should switch to a little cross stitching, but it would seem I'm still in a canvas state of mind, so I might as well go with the flow for a bit.

I do hope that this finds you happy and healthy and wealthy and stitching on this fine Sunday afternoon.  If you're hot, keep cool, and if you're cool, keep warm!

Woo Hoo!
Coni