Late on Everything

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but I did take a slight vacation from blogging and to a lesser extent stitching.  As the days start to get shorter, I feel myself having the need to start getting everything ready for winter although that need is not as necessary as it was when I lived in New Hampshire as we don't have much of a winter here in central Virginia (of course now that I've said that...)  A sure sign that the season is changing is the number of young that are being brought into the bird feeders now.  I've seen two cardinals and a wren coming in with their parents, along with the crows and finches and last evening a mother raccoon and two cubs.  I'm not as excited about the raccoon family, but the sighting explains the amount of feed we're going through.  Another sure sign is the hummingbird invasion has started.  I counted as best as I could with the things whizzing around 15 of them the other day. They are so busy chasing each other away from the feeders that I doubt they have time to feed.

So what have I missed since my last post?  Well, first IHSW but I can't go back and participate so will have to give that one a miss.

Then I missed posting my TUSAL, now that one I can show you:

Not a lot new in there, but the color mix is very pretty.

Next I missed the August WIPocalypse.  Another one I can fix.  I know you're very surprised to see this one aren't you?  67 done, 32 to go.

And one I haven't missed!  My August ornament:

This is Strawberry Delight Ornament by Tink Boord-Dill Needlework.  It's done on a 28-count Lambswool with DMC.  It is definitely more of a springtime pattern, but I like the colors.  Glad it's number came up for the ornament rotation.  I haven't run the random number generator to see which ornament/small is up next.

YOTA Saturday

The calendar say it's August, but I don't know where July went,and since it's the first Saturday, it's YOTA Saturday. Taking two weeks off from work sure did mess with my internal clock - not that I am complaining well except for the 300+ emails I had to deal with on Monday.  I did a staycation for a week and was off to my sister's and then my parent's home in Michigan, for a week thanks Mom and Dad and Nancy.  My mother's family had a reunion and it was fun catching up with folks that I hadn't seen in a while okay it had been 23 years but that's just embarrassing to say.  I definitely have to make an effort to see them all sooner.

I took 99 with me with some delusions grand thoughts that I would stitch all afternoon and evening, and managed to stitch one bottle.  Yes, one bottle, having nothing to do takes a lot of time.  I was able to do a few more once I got home, so there is progress to show but not what I hoped.

Here's where 99 was:

And here's where it is today:

Lots of catching up with housework and errands this weekend and then packing for a work trip to St. Paul, Minnesota.  I'm going to be more reasonable and not take any stitching with me - I'm training and know that won't have the energy at the end of the day to concentrate on stitching or much of anything as we're down a trainer.  I am behind, again, on my blog reading and commenting.  This time, instead of trying to catch up, I may just call a "from this day forward", certainly takes a lot of pressure off me pressure that I am so good at putting on myself.