Stitching slowly...

...but surely. I'm still not back to regular stitching speed. Thankfully it's not a complete loss of mojo...it's more like a decrease. I'm still stitching, but I either get interested in something on TV, get interested in something on the computer, or doze off with needle in hand, and then I don't get as much stitching done. I don't know...for some reason, I'm easily distracted right now. *shrug*

Anyhoo...I do have some progress to share.

First up is the latest view of Coq au Pins, as of Saturday night's stitching session. This is the part that will become the actual chicken, and I'm about halfway done with it. The halfway mark is just a smidge to the right of where I've left off (just checked the pattern...the halfway mark is in the middle of the letter L).

I really, REALLY enjoy working on this one! I love working with the variegated floss and how the color blends are turning out. Plus I like the feeling of accomplishment as I work through each individual design motif.

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And here is what the tree side of Christmas biscornu looks like as of Wednesday's stitching. I'm proud to say all floss stitching is finished! I put in the last couple of colors and the final smyrna stitches (the white stitches toward the center...kinda hard to see in the photo, but they're there) last night, plus got the backstitched border done as well. All that's left to do on this side is the beading, which I'll wait and do when the other side is completely stitched. Might as well face the torture task of beading all at once.

I need to hustle my bustle a bit more with the next side. It's already May and I still have this and 2 more family ornaments to stitch, plus I have to do this one again for my mom. And I was hoping to have all ornaments completed AND finish-finished by Thanksgiving...

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So when I was getting the above photos, I decided to play around with my camera a bit. I noticed The Little Dog had followed me back to the bedroom - I took the pictures in the bedroom since it had the best lighting at that moment - so I decided to work some shutterbuggery on the dog.

This first picture is kind of cool (at least I think so). I put the camera on the floor and started taking pictures as The Little Dog was walking toward me. He's not one for having the camera pointed at him, but I guess he kept coming because I was lying on the floor and he was interested in what I was doing. Notice he has a suspicious look in his eyes...meaning he's suspicious of what I'm doing.

This was using a pretty good part of the zoom...he was across the room from me at the time. And I guess his eyes were at *just* the right angle for the flash to reflect. I guess I could have blacked that spot out...didn't think of it until just now. Oh well.


And here is another one I got a bit later. He wasn't too receptive of the camera, so he eventually walked away from me a bit and sat down with his back to me. Nothing could make him turn around...whistling, kissing noises, "yo dog!"...nothing. He'd had enough, I guess.

I could come up with a bunch of captions for this photo...LOL! Now I have ideas to re-edit the original and put some kind of silly caption off to the side...like I don't have anything else that I should be doing! :-)

OK, maybe that's enough shutterbuggery for today...

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In other stitching, I'm still plugging away on my partner's birthday exchange piece. It took lots of thinking and studying to settle on the colors, but I think I chose correctly. I like how it's turning out so far. I hope my partner likes it!

Up tonight is Alphabet Sampler K Block. Don't know how much I'll actually get accomplished, since it's a major TV night. Survivor, Scrubs (finale!! *sniff*), Lost....unfortunately Scrubs and Survivor overlap, so I'll have to watch one live and TiVo the other one (I ♥ the TiVo...I depend on it WAY too much, which is quite sad...) So I'll stitch while watching, which never really works out all that well.

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Real quick...found out about a couple more Sinatra things for this month. The US Postal Service is issuing a Sinatra stamp next week (I'll be getting some of those to keep!), with first day of sale events in Hoboken, New Jersey (his hometown), New York City, and Las Vegas. His 3 children will be at the events - Nancy and Frank Jr in New York, Tina in Las Vegas, and Frank Jr in Hoboken (wish I lived close enough to any of those places to attend!). And LIFE magazine has a "Remembering Sinatra" issue out...which I snapped right up when I saw it this morning. I skimmed through it quickly, but it looks quite interesting. Will have to sit and read it sometime.

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I better get going and do something, so it looks like I got something accomplished today. I have a couple Topics of the Week and an SBQ or two to answer, but they'll have to go in the next entry.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Thursday!