Diligence

Although I have been tremendously busy with school stuff, I made some time for stitching this week. I was getting antsy and agitated, too unsettled to devote the time and attention to the fine points of my reading for class, and things aren't going well at work at all. My left eye has developed an annoying twitch that comes and goes like summer lightning. The stitching helped a lot. So here's a bit of progress on Tulips (it's really called Product of my Needle, but sheesh, what a name). This is a fun, if time-consuming stitch with all the black to fill in. But the elements change constantly: the pink tulips, the green leaves, the gold Greek key border, the silver Kreinik braid splitting the two black lines under the alphabet. Can you see it shine? Fun!

I took this out too. I believe I will be able to finish it in the next couple of months, especially if I have time off this summer. The practice group leader of our legal practice is departing for another firm and will probably take half the group with him. He's a mercurial, difficult man, high in legal intelligence, low in emotional intelligence. He experienced a setback at the firm and has been pouting ever since, and I figured he'd pick up his marbles and move on. Sure enough. But he will likely take everyone I work for with him. The firm they're going to has done its own layoffs and has its own idled staff, so it's likely my co-workers and I--the grunt staff--won't be invited along. And in truth--not sour grapes--I don't want to go. Nor do I want to stay. What I'm hoping for is a layoff from my current firm, with the generous parting gift they give and the vacation that I've been hoarding. In any case, pushing the needle in and out is more soothing than any pill, and doesn't require a prescription.

I've always been a huge fan of Scarlet Letter's designs, and I have a number of them in my stash. Yesterday I went to Everything Cross Stitch and got the fabric for Christinia Cathcart (a design by The Samplar Workes that I showed a few weeks ago) and a few skeins of AVAS for Diligence. I also picked up LHN's Beach Cottage and fibers.

Anyway, I love the over-the-top border of this design. I think I'll leave out the boxer with the golden orb on the front steps, though. He creeps me out.

The skein colors were odd (and mostly not in stock)--they're less blue and more aqua than in the photo. I can't decide whether I should adjust the colors or go with what they recommend. See the small floss toss below? The blue is more of a swimming pool aqua in the floss, and truer blue in the picture. The red is more mauve-y in the floss version.

Here's Elvis, posing next to the big jar of pennies we use as a doorstop and to keep the bunny fencing from falling over (we fence out the places that bunnies like to crawl under and privately demolish the carpet). You can see that his face is getting fluffier by the week.

Off I go to the grocery store or we'll have to live on Fritos and Lean Cuisine again this week (which from a diet standpoint is a little like driving along at 60 mph on the freeway and suddenly throwing the car in reverse). Happy week ahead!