Ornaments

I have made some small progress on the Thanksgiving ornament I started late in April: a Prairie Schooler Turkey lifted from the center medallion of the Thanksgiving panel in the Harvest Time leaflet. Because I need the WDW Charcoal [called for in the border] for my Town Square SAL [Monsterbubbles Jail], I have substituted the black cotton Sullivan floss that I had received as a promotional offer as my border color. It gives a slightly darker edge to the piece than was charted but it looks just fine. I found the Sullivan floss to be comparable to Anchor floss rather than to DMC floss, somewhat harsher in the hand than I would have liked. I will try one or two other colors before I dismiss this brand as undesirable ... after all, the darker colors hold more dye and tend to have a coarser texture ... The skein of black may not be representative of the entire line.

I look forward to starting Aury's Quaker Bird in a Nest once I have finished stitching the turkey, though realistically, the turkey ornament may take a while, being quite densely stitched. I am sticking to smaller projects during the early part of the month because things won't be smoothing out at work until after the 17th. I don't want to work on anything particularly complex while I am a babbling idiot, exhausted and overwhelmed. These two ornaments and the solid blocks of color in the Monsterbubbles' Jail piece for the Town Square SAL are just about as much as I can handle at this point.

And, as luck would have it, I may have to suspend all these stitching plans anyway: Lisa's RR piece hasn't arrived yet and I am supposed to finish my stitching and mail it off myself by May 15. I hope it is not lost, Lisa is trying to trace it ... meanwhile, I will start a new piece for her and have to go searching for a nice piece of aida [which I no longer keep in my stash, being a devout linen stitcher]. Since her theme is snowmen, I'll be looking for something in pale blue, like a winter sky ... if I use a white or even an off white, everyone will have to backstitch their snowmen in a darker shade.

Happily, two Confirmation practices, two Confirmations, three First Communion practices and the creation of the 2010-11 registration mailing are behind me. Today's tasks include a trip to the one post office in the county that accepts bulk mailings [between the lines and the round trip, that'll slice an hour or more out of my productive workday], copying/assembling/stapling 500 copies of the Communion Mass booklet, one last Communion practice, creating an e-mail address book for my current 7th grade/2010 8th grade and sending out reminders about the comprehensive exam and the review class for said exam that is a Confirmation program prerequisite. And, if I have any time left after that, grading 74 seventh grade quarter finals. I keep telling myself that by May 17th, everything will smooth out and return to normal levels of chaos. Tomorrow is my day-off and, as luck would have it, I am scheduled to take a stress test at the cardiologist's office ... timing is everything. So, if my stitching progress seems somewhat lacking lately ... there is a reason. At the moment, I don't dare even touch my TW Autumn Faerie, which is languishing on the stitching stand in front of my favorite straight back chair in the living room. But after the 17th, watch out ... my goal, insired by Dani, is to finish the border by the end of May.