Bark!

We made it to Bark! I just love the store and wish we had one nearby. I do a weekly stock-up on catfood, litter, bunny hay, etc., so it I had allowed our supplies to dwindle, knowing that I would be visiting. Bark! donated 10% of their sales today to Bright Eyes Sanctuary.

They are state-of-the-art. Our cats are mostly older and have various eating quirks (and Lord, they're all such pukers!), so it was nice to have a huge selection of non-grocery-store type cat foods to choose from. I'm hoping for the perfect food: something to soothe tender tums, something to fatten up the skinny ones and slim down the fat ones, and something they all like. I filled the trunk of my car with about 10 different brands. The lit case has fresh refrigerated food, which I didn't try because I didn't bring the ice chest and the temps were in the 80s today.

And that's Patti in the blue shirt. Better shots of us coming from Patti--I do better photographing needlework than people and places. I met such lovely people too--several other adoptive bunny families.

Here's little Earless Glenna bun. Also missing most of her teeth, which were surgically removed. Aside from her physical challenges, she's bright and lively and has attitude to spare.

The pink tissue is healthy tissue. Glenna Bun was a throw-away/stray, and she lost her ears to frostbite. I got to hold her on my lap; she's quite the cuddler, even with all those people around. Patti took some photos of us which I'll share another time.

These three are Patches (the mom) and Dario and Hazel. They are up for adoption, but as a family, as they are closely bonded.

Here's Audrey, enjoying a visit with Dario.

Audrey and I had a blast at Bark! I'm wiped out, so it's off to bed for me as soon as I can clean out the bun room. See the post below if you're here for needlework--2 posts today. Happy week ahead!

Going to Bark!

This will be quick, because we're headed out to "Bark!" for a benefit for Bright Eyes Sanctuary, the wonderful bunny rescue who rescued Pink. We'll do a second post this afternoon with pictures from that event. In the meantime, if you live nearby, think about going to one of the Clarksville or Olney, MD locations from noon to 4:00 p.m. I'm headed for Olney. Bark! is a wonderful place with premium pet food of all kinds. You know that with 3 bunnies and 6 cats, I'm going to be stocking up. There will be rabbits to adopt as well from Bright Eyes Sanctuary; BF has warned me not to come back with any other little bunnies.

School has pretty much faded away, so I had more time this week to stitch. I ordered a pale blue 40 ct fabric from Picture This Plus, which arrived yesterday. You know I had to put just a few stitches in to the Eliz. Welford Sampler (Handwork) to see how it would look. This isn't the best light, because it's very gray today.

I worked quite a bit on Scarlet Letter's "Diligence."

There are lots of specialty stitches in this sampler. Here are a few: rice stitch (the light green), backstitch, four-sided stitch, queen stitches.

I've looked at this sampler for years and finally ordered it. Ann Wallace. I started kitting it up yesterday. Oddly, the required AVAS thread for the huge building IRL is brown, not gray, so I'm thinking of changing it to gray. I don't think the brown has the same impact.

Audrey arrived this week, bearing gifts, from Hef's Mom at the Bunny Lounge. Audrey and Bearly There are discussing Audrey's upcoming trip to Bark!

Pink knows that I will be visiting with Glenna Bun, who lost her lovely pink ears to frostbite. Mama Patti, as we refer to Patti Henningsen in our house, has nursed Glenna Bunn through horrible surgeries and has never given up on her. Pink says he's grateful for his soft pink ears and for Mama Patti, who's pretty much the Mother Theresa of bunnies, as far as he's concerned.

Back later with pictures from Bark!

Scarlet Fever

One last paper to write this weekend, so I took Friday off to get some things done before I killed the rest of the weekend with schoolwork. One of the things I did was gather up a few of my many Scarlet Letter charts and take them to In Stitches to kit them up. The nice thing about going to the LNS on a weekday morning is how uncrowded and peaceful it is. I spent a happy couple of hours chatting with the ladies there and pulling the threads I was missing for Elizabeth Welford (I don't remember if I cannibalized them or just never finished purchasing them), by Handwork Samplers, and for three Scarlet Letter samplers. Here's Elizabeth. This is the designer's photo. Doesn't it appear to be stitched on silvery/blueish/gray fabric? The design actually calls for lambswool, which I don't like using. It's worked on 40 count, with NPI.

Here's the floss toss in not-ideal lamp light. On the left is Picture This Plus silvery gray called Fog, and on the right is Lakeside Buttercream. The Fog looks truer to the design photo but the Buttercream shows the ecru NPI better, I think, and there's quite a lot of stitching in that color. Since then I added two more colors of fabric, a darker blue PTP, and a pale blue/gray Lakeside. Still undecided.

Scarlet Letter: I have been collecting them forever--everything from Ideal Landscape to the various Elizabeths, Sarahs, Margarets, Rebeccas, Anns, Mary Anns and Robertas. This is Diligence, a chart I've had for several years. I had to start it, because when I kitted it up (AVAS and Maritime White Lakeside), I realized how unusual the colors were--bright enough, aren't they?

Diligence. I love the verse (over one), which says "Diligence: If you would adorn human nature/embellish and improve your understanding/How truly blest are they who leasure find/To dress the little garden of the mind/That grateful tillage will reward our pains/Sweet is the Labor certain are the gains/The rising harvest never mocks our toil/We're sure of fruit if we manure the soil."

Ann, which I fell in love with after seeing Nicole's. I noticed that In Stitches had Ann Smith plus several others I want to collect. Between Scarlet Letter and Essamplaire, you really could spend a lifetime stitching and never get through them all. I have spent many happy hours looking at their charts online and in shops and planning what I will hang where when they're finally done. Never mind the odds of that.

Here's a closeup of Adam and Eve (and like a lot of you, I'd like to have an Adam and Eve wall). Doesn't it look as if Adam is rolling his eyes and saying "oh, crap?" (A&E photo borrowd from Scarlet Letter's website.)


Mary Ann. I like the scene with its outsize chickens and sheep, the nicely done house, and the hovering angel who sports a goofy grin (you can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the angel's expression).

Elvis is feeling sorry for himself here. He was being soothed after having his nails clipped. Sorry, Elvis! There will be a nice salad for you later, after I've finished this stupid paper.

I'm off to dress the little garden of the mind and manure the soil! That doesn't really sound very good, does it? Happy week ahead, and may you spend as much time happily anticipating stitching as actually doing it.

What to Do at a Dandelion Party

This has been a fraught week, with little stitching but with much studying, since school will be wrapping up in a couple of weeks. I spent the entire weekend working on a paper (an in depth analysis of accounting fraud at AIG with respect to offshore accounts and finite risk insurance--don't you wish you were me?) and didn't so much as pick up a needle. So tonight I'm cranky, but because I finished the paper, I'm going to go stitch in just a moment. What I did accomplish was a little stitching on the Christmas ornament by Blackberry Lane Designs. I'm working it over one on 32 count cashel (I think) with DMC. I like the linen, because it's just stiff enough. And I love the design.

We did have a dandelion party. I groomed the garden bed (yay for planting perennials last year--the ultimate timesaver is to have your garden grow its own flowers and not have to go buy more and plant 'em) and plucked out the dandelions for the bunnies, who generally adore them, and had a little party.
Discovery. Pink: Woooo! Par-tay!

Pink: Look! I know a trick! I can pull the tablecloth out from under the food without breaking a wine glass!

Peaches: What wine glass? There's wine? Oh! Maybe dandelion wine!

Pink: Ok, now that the dandelions are gone, we'll eat the tablecloth!

Happy week ahead, and don't eat the tablecloth!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter morning! We have a quiet day planned. Hopefully I can get in a little stitching today. I picked up and put down any number of projects this week, but I couldn't settle until late week, when I did some work on this. It doesn't look like a lot of progress, but the over-one verse takes longer. So do the bullet-hole stitches, as I call them (the green letter on the lower left). This is Janet Gibson's Scottish Swan, by the way. I'm working my way down towards the house and the swan. The swan is to be filled in with buttonhole stitch, so I'm eager to learn it and then get it behind me.

This was peak cherry blossom week in DC, and the streets were overflowing with tourists. I go visit the trees every 2nd or 3rd year--I don't like crowds--since my office is only about six blocks from the Tidal Basin. This year the weather was warm, so it was a nice walk.

The Washington Monument, wearing a tutu:

A different view of the Washington Monument, with the Cherry Blossom Porta Potties (CBPPs) in the foreground. I'm showing you this because you can see the blossoms floating in the breeze. Whenever there'd be a good puff, everyone would sort of sigh in unison and say "ahhhhhh....snow!" It was pretty funny to hear that every time there was a new breeze.


This may give you an idea of the crowds. Everyone who marches in the wall to wall volksmarch around the tidal basin seems to plop down at the Jefferson Memorial to contemplate the water, the blossoms and the beautiful day. This shot was taken from my firm's roof deck.


Here's the Easter Bunny, catching a snooze.
Pink: "I was up late delivering candy and eggs!"
Pink, Peaches, Elvis and I want to wish you a happy Easter. For fun, go here to see the 4th Annual Peeps diorama contest from the Washington Post. The contest is called "Peeps Show." As always, the entries are so clever.

Happy week ahead!