Last Friday was spa day and a number of other topics

After a really rough couple of weeks on the job, I treated myself to a spa day: facial, manicure and haircut. I love Jackie who gives me my facials because she also massages my back, my arms and my lower legs and feet ... and aside from being a totally relaxing, tension draining experience, her facials and massages are adventures in aromatherapy. Jackie is my hero! Now I am ready to tackle registration for next year's program, grading finals, signing off on over 600 progress reports, and all the ordering of texts and supplies for 2009-10, all the staff meetings, catechist meetings and regional meetings, and the summer in-service workshops, etc. etc. I feel so good it ought to be illegal.

I had intended to trek on down to the framing shop on Friday afternoon, but after the spa morning and early afternoon grocery shopping, I went home and cooked a late lunch for my husband. He was home because he had some skin cancers removed during some in-office surgery at his dermatologist this morning. I had offered to forego my spa appointment and go with him but he [bless his macho soul] said it wasn't necessary. But I did feel that once home he deserved a little extra pampering ... a pint of his favorite ice cream to top off a nice lunch. I even endured a George Strait Concert DVD during lunch. I figured Bill needed as many little treats as possible to build a nice comfort zone to compensate for the two and a half incision in his cheek. So the framing will have to wait till next Friday.

On the stitching front, I put in a bit more time on Fertile Circles Friday evening and Sunday and Monday mornings. Here's a photo of current progress. As you can see I have stitched about 3/4 of the front cover for my needlebook. I am going to stitch the back with my initial as a Celtic Rune and fill in the background with waves of color using the same palette as on the front ... so the back will stitch up more quickly than the front. The "spine" will be a single vertical row of rice stitches. I am really having a great deal of fun with this piece.

As for my progress on The Sweetheart Tree's Holly and Hearts Sampler: I seem to be spending an eternity on row 14 with it's fussy back-stitched vines and leaves ... but I am making progress, really I am!!!! Compare the photos below. I keep telling myself that slow and steady wins the race. Anyway, this piece is such a pleasure to work on that I don't mind the fact that it requires such a major investment of time. This is what it looked like last time I posted a photo

and this is a photo of the current condition of Row 14:

It doesn't seem like a lot of progress for nearly 3 hours of stitching, but I find this particular row requires slow, careful and accurate stitching to keep the symmetry intact. I'd rather dawdle than frog.

I am also making some stitching time for Workbasket's Rabbit Rondel which looked like this when last you saw it: And now looks like this, with just about 1/4 of the inner ring stitched:

So far this month I have worked on all my goals but two

--ten hours stitching on Teresa Wentzler's Autumn Faerie

--kitting up and starting Teresa Wentzler's Woodland Angel Christmas Stocking

... and while I may not have accomplished all the goals I have worked on completely, at least I am making discernible progress. I feel like I am finally getting a handle on the whole monthly goals concept. I am setting more doable goals, I am not getting frantic about acheiving them and I am enjoying my stitching. And, of course, there are still 11 days left in this month, including the long Memorial Day weekend which will generate more stitching time than usual. So who knows, this may be the first time in two years that I meet all my monthly goals!!!