Elvis Goes to Vienna and Attends the School of Rock

We discovered that little Elvis has a case of worms, which is not that common in rabbits and turns out is fairly harmless. Vets treat the pinworms because of the grossness factor for the humans in the house. So Elvis and I headed yesterday for Vienna, which has an exotic vet called Stahl Exotic Animal Veterinary Services. SEAVS comes highly recommended in this area, although there are several good exotic vets in Northern Virginia. Yesterday's visit was a lot of fun; it's always entertaining to sit in the waiting room of a place that just treats birds and reptiles and little mammals and see what kind of pets come through the door. There was a guinea pig hanging out in a Rubbermaid tub, a large lizard, a pet rat in a little rat-sized carrier and a pair of brown bunnies. My sister was waiting with her dog at her veterinarian, who also has an exotic practice, and reported that a guinea pig or hamster came in in a Barbie Dream House carrier. I was excited about buying a Barbie Dream House carrier for Elvis, but my sister said that it was an actual Barbie Dream House.
Anyway, Elvis is embarrassed about his wormy butt condition and has asked me to tell you that he was actually taking a class (drumming) at the School of Rock Music next door to the vet. You're right, Rabbits' Guy, rock stars get on postage stamps, not samplers. And they DON'T ride in Barbie Dream House carriers!

I hadn't been to Vienna for years, but I remembered hearing that it has a needlework shop called the Scarlet Thread, so after the vet visit, I drove the half mile (all my appointments should be so convenient to a needlework shop) and parked the car with Elvis in it, since the day was a balmy 60 degrees and with a slightly open window, the car was a perfect temp. for a sleeping bunny (being a rock star clearly wore him out). For those of you in NoVa, Scarlet Thread is across the street from the Outback Steakhouse on Maple Avenue, and it's worth a visit. My pictures didn't come out very well, unfortunately. ST has a great collection of unusual samplers that you don't see everywhere; there are German and French samplers, and a small collection of Canadian samplers I hadn't seen before. There are a lot of samplers that feature stitches other than cross stitch, and some crewel kits. They have a gorgeous and easily accessible selection of fibers.
I got "Crabby April thru June" which came with the buttons, by Raise the Roof. I'm planning on stitching the whole design, which is a hoot. I especially like that the May rabbit picture comes with two little round buttons that look like bunny pellets!

I'm stitching on an unknown piece of 32 ct linen that I had in my stash, using DMC floss. It's a pretty quick stitch; if you were ambitious, you could probably stitch one month in a day. Here's my progress after starting this morning (the May/Rabbits block happened to be the center of the design whether you're stitching all 12 months or just this strip). I haven't stitched his whiskers yet because they're a long straight stitch and I didn't want to damage them with the Q snap as I moved around the design.