Too Early For Christmas?

Is everyone melting yet? On the east coast, as well as the most of the rest of country, it's been HOT! We've had record high temperatures and humidity. For me, great weather to stay in doors and stitch! And to look for new stash acquisitions. I was over on the 123 Stitch message board last week and someone over there posted pictures of these letters that she was making for her grand kids that were by Heaven and Earth Designs. I thought the ones that she was working on were really pretty, so I surfed over to the HAED site. Not only did I like the letter P that they designed, but they were having a sale!
Did I really need any other excuse to buy something new? I've been waiting for it, rather impatiently I might add, for it to arrive so that I can do a floss toss and decide what color fabric to do it on. I have an orange that I dyed that I think would rock, but I want to see the floss colors that it calls for.

As if I needed any more stash, I recently got The Stitchery catalog in the mail, which I have leafed through several times and have several pages with folded corners. While I was looking through it I was remembered that I several years ago I bought these little kits that were panda bear Christmas ornaments. I knew I had made all of them, except for three of them. They are supposed to spell out the word "joy" and I thought that they would be something easy to pull out and maybe work on. So, through the stash closet I looked for this bag with the panda kits in the. Not only did I find the ones that I had not started, but I found two ornaments that were completely done!

The only thing they needed was their ribbon hangers and they are ready to hang on my ornament tree this Christmas season. Maybe I should go thought the closet more often!

Since I pulled out the bag I decided to start the final three ornaments. They are small so they will work up quickly, and these are great take along projects.

You can even start to see his little body sitting on the J, and that is only after about an hour of stitching time.

That light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter and brighter with every stitch of the table runner.

All of the lettering on the top and bottom and the top border is done. Now I just have to finish the bottom border and work on the left side and it will be ready for the iron!

A close up picture of what remains to be stitched. I'm getting there. It may be little by little, but I am getting there.

As we head into the new week my thoughts turn to my father-in-law. On Wednesday he will undergo surgery to remove a cancerous tumor that was found on his kidney. According to the doctor, it is very slow growing and once it is removed he will not have to undergo any further treatment, like radiation or chemotherapy. That was a relief for the rest of us to hear. He's nervous, although he really does not want to show that to us, but we know he is. We can tell. Any extra good thoughts that anyone has this week would be greatly appreciated. My parents have been deceased for almost 11 years, so my in-laws are the only parental figures that I have, and they have always been very good to me. In some ways, my in-laws were better to me than my own parents were.

We are just about half way through the summer vacation. Aside from a few 100 degree days, it has not been that bad. It's starting to get darker just a little bit earlier in the evenings, and there is a part of me that is thinking, "Can summer really be halfway over already?" Soon I will be starting to think about buying school supplies and helping M and Z get their backpacks organized for their first day of school.

In my last post I told you that I had been stuck in the house for a few days with no car. It was at the dealership for 4 days waiting to get looked at. The good news was that there was nothing wrong with it. The bad news was that it took them four days to look at it and let me know that. At least I got it back. Then, the next day I was so happy to have a car that Z and I took a ride over to Trader Joe's for a few things. And then I got caught in a speed trap on the way home. It was the first time since I first got my driver's license that I have been pulled over by a cop for anything! It's a good thing that my brother-in-law is an NYC police officer and that he gives me a new PBA card every year Christmas because I am sure that the ticket for going 48 mph in a 30 mph zone would have been a heck of a ticket!

While school supplies and fall weather are in my future, right now it's hot and there is chocolate ice cream in the freezer that is calling my name. Have a good week!