Another week's summary

I haven't blogged lately, mainly because there hasn't been a lot of stitching happening and frankly, I've been in a bit of a *mood*. Suffice it to say that all is not well in Joanie's World right now.

The Cadet is struggling mightily with school. He's got a big decision ahead of him, one that I can not make for him. And it's very hard for me to sit back and Be Still because I am the biggest CONTROL FREAK in the universe, I want him to be happy but I also want him to realize that the decision he makes will affect him long into the future so he needs to look beyond the NOW. And I am on pins in needles, wanting to jump in and save the day but knowing full well that he's an adult who must decide and live with the consequences of his decision.

I have also made the very painful decision to put down my Austrailian Shepherd, Fraggles. I just don't know when I will make the phone call to the vet to come to the house to do it. It'll be before the end of the month though. I wish that I could spare myself the pain of this phone call but I need to do what's best for him. I probably will have one of the local farm vets do the deed for me even though it will be much more expensive than taking him to the vet clinic. I want the vet to come to the house to euthanize him because the last time we put him in the car to go to the veterinary clinic, he was so scared. He was very disoriented and afraid of the motion of the car. I can not let his last hours on the earth be filled with fear and dis-orientation. I owe him that much. Fraggles is 13 years old and his health has deteriorated tremendously in the last 3 months. He has lost his hearing and is pretty much blind from cataracts. The vet says he probably sees shadows. He has arthritis and is having difficulty standing or getting up. Yesterday when I got home from work, he didn't have the strength to push himself up off the floor to stand. I had to have David lift him up and set him upright untill he got his legs under him. While he was struggling to get up on his own, he must have scared himself to death cause he started to shake uncontrollably. I know that his quality of life is less and less each day and I can't let him go on because I don't want to let him go.

The only stitching that's been happening is John Foster and M. Pollard, I am working on John's house roof, it's all most done (3 more rows to stitch) and I need to install the dormer windows. I have both fir trees on either side of the house done too. On M. Pollard, I'm working on the dove motif. I like this sampler alot. It's not as large as some of the Quaker samplers I own, it's a good size for a medium sized project. The motifs aren't so large that I feel that I am stitching on them forever. I am stitching on the linen provided in the kit. When I first got the kit, I almost chucked the linen cause it was very stiff. But now, I LOVE it. As I've been working on it, it has softened up and it feels great in hand. It's a nice color too, the color of soft butter. I am stitching it with Vicki Clayton silks in Basic Black and it looks great on the linen. Very graphic. I decided to upgrade to silk instead of the black DMC that was included in the kit. I think I now have have eleventy dozen skeins of 310!!!
Oh, I am stitching a Valentine piece too, it's for the Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB. I will not tell you the pattern I am stitching but I will tell you that I am stitching on Antique White linen with Vicki Clayton silks in Garnet, a very rich red. It's got my all time favorite specialty stitch - Levithian. I really love how the thread just swirls around itself. The silks have such a lovely sheen and I am very happy with the progress I've made on it. I hope to finish stitching it this weekend and putting it together early next week. I want to mail it before the end of the month as it's going far away.

I've been fighting the urge to start new things too. Guilt free January and holiday starts make me get a bad case of startitus. BUT, I am strong and will continue working on these WIPS. It's alway a thrill to put the first couple of rows into a new piece of fabric but regrets follow when I lose interest and it goes in the *I'll get back to you* pile.

Anyway, I am hoping to get stitching in this weekend. It will be a good thing, I need to relax and work on something beautiful.

I hope you'll stop again soon and have a great weekend. I will be updating with pictures soon, the weather just has been ugly and pictures don't come out well without sufficient lighting. Thanks for your patience!