February Smalls Check-in

It's time for February's  check-in. But before I get to that, Trouble, Salem and Spot are rather upset that I have been giving the guest cats more attention here than they've been getting. So to right that here's a picture of the resident cats:

The two black lumps are Spot (on the left - if you look very closely you can see the white spot on her foot that gave her her name - that and I thought it was funny to call an almost solid black cat "Spot") and Salem (on the right) and Trouble is in the bed in the front.  And yes they have their own chairs.  A couple of years ago, The Hubs and I bough new desk chairs.  We couldn't get to the dump right away, so we pushed the old ones to the edge of the room.  Weelllll, the cats started sleeping in them and the chairs haven't made it to the dump yet.

I do have to talk about the guest cats a little.  I have been stalking checking the rescue group's website to see how the girls were getting along and on Thursday it showed that Molly was adopted.  One big sigh of relief and now huge crossed fingers that Olivia finds her family soon.

So onto  check-in.  The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  This SAL is the main reason I have any finishes throughout the year.  I tend to be a BAP stitcher so anything that reminds me that small is good too is for me.  This month's piece is By the Full Moon from Ink Circles:

 It's stitched with DMC on a mystery piece of hand-dyed fabric although I am positive it is from Picture This Plus.

And before I forget again - if you're in the Richmond area and have a few hours the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is hosting The Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China until mid-March.  I went a couple weeks ago and am going again next Sunday.  I have seen a number of television shows on the topic, but to come around the corner of the main exhibit hall and actually see them stopped me in my tracks.  They don't allow flash photography so the photographs aren't particularly good but give you an idea:

and here's a close up of one of the faces:

I may have watched too much Scooby-Doo when I was a kid, but it was not hard to imagine them stepping off their display podiums and walking out the door.  And if the warriors aren't your cup of tea the museum has an amazing Faberge (I can't get the ' over the "e") and Russian Decorative Arts collection - including five Imperial Eggs.

Zen is still on the frame and I hope to get some quality time with it this afternoon/evening and tomorrow.