More progress and a Sunburn

     Luckily, it's not bad.  And it's only on half of my upper body, lol.  I went out on the balcony with Yes Dear the other day.  We got up early Friday and spent quite a bit of time out there.  Four hours to be precise.  Yes, I did get a lot done.  Yes, Yes Dear enjoyed it immensely.  Unfortunately, I got a sunburn.  Not a bad one, like I said, but enough that I knew it was there and was a little bit sore.  You can see how one side of me got burned, but the other half didn't.  (Yes, I am naturally VERY pale.)  When I go outside on the balcony, if I stand at the back door and look out over the parking lot, I'm at twelve.  The sun rises at seven or eight, and comes over that way.  But the balcony above me shadows part of me, as I sit at an angle to the sun.  So my right side is burned, and the left side got nothing.  It looks hilarious to me.  Guess I need to get some sunblock.  Of course, I won't be out there when it's hot, so nbd.  I do love the spring and fall, though, cause I can go out and stitch and let Yes Dear be out for a bit.  We have a tree in the back yard (???).  It's actually mostly parking lot, but there is a ring around it of grass.  And in that ring is a tree.  It's big and it has a huge number of berries on it.  The birds absolutely love it.  The fly in and out, they eat the berries off the ground, they fight over who gets the juiciest branches, and they generally make a spectacle of themselves.  Yes Dear thoroughly enjoys watching the spectacle.  She sits on the balcony (or my knees) and watches them play and fight and fly around.  It's awesome.  (She likes to go out more in the spring than in the fall.  The birds aren't there in the fall.  She still likes to go out though.)  Here are pics.  You can see the berries all over the tree in the back, and then there are bushes to the left, and driveway to the right.  It's nice and quiet back there.  She does get scared when a car comes into the garage though.  She runs into the house for a few minutes.  She invariably comes back out though.  She runs inside for about five or ten minutes, then she sits at the door for a few minutes, and I coax her back outside.  She'll come back out and sit on my knees again then.  Or she'll lay on the floor of the balcony sometimes.  It's so nice to be able to provide her with that kind of entertainment.  She's so busy watching everything around.  She didn't even get scared when the neighbor came out with his dog the other day.  She's getting used to it, lol.  (She's a real wuss.  She used to run every time someone came out in the back yard.  Or a car pulled in.  Or a car pulled out.  You get the picture, lol.  Total fraidy cat!!!)

     And now for the stitchy porn, lol.  I got a ton of work done on Beach Romance (Janlynn) 

today.  I went to bed shortly after ten last night, cause I was REALLY tired.  Fell asleep within about twenty minutes.  (It would have been sooner, but I was sharing a single person pull out with a large (sixty pound) dog, lol.)  Got up around nine, took the dog out to potty, pilled him, and got him settled.  Around nine forty, I got out the stitching.  I kept telling myself, "I'll take a break after I finish up this little bit of this color," and then I kept starting another little section of that color.  Next thing I knew, it was twelve thirty.  (We were invited to David's for lunch between twelve and one.)  Mom got there at twelve forty five, Cathy and Jim at one.  David and Amy had trouble with the boat cause of the rain, and didn't get there till late.  It was after two, and we had eaten and cleaned up already.  So they dug out the paper plates, and had theirs.  Cathy and Jim left first, then mom left, and finally I left (at about five thirty).  Told them about their animals, and they told me what was what in the garden.  It's looking good.  If I remember, I'll take pics the next time I dogsit.  But I stitched up until lunch was ready, and then for a while after too.  I worked in quite a few different colors too.  I did all of her second leg, and the sand around her legs (parts of it, mostly to the right), and the water under her feet.  I'm very pleased with it, and I'm sure I'll stitch tonight after Julie gets home from work.  (BTW, say a prayer for her.  She's having a tough weekend.  She worked doubles Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday.  I'm sure she'll be whipped by the time she gets home.  So say a prayer that she gets some rest and has enough money to pay all the bills.)

     Next up is my rotation piece for the past two weeks, Midnight Hunting

 (Dracolair Creations).  It came along really well too.  I got a lot more done than you can see, because I had to move my Q-snap over.  I did all of the outside border on the left side, but it's under the huggie.  Then I did the bit of the border on the top that you can see, and part of his wing.  I also did the quarter of the circle you can see is unfinished, and parts of the inner border on the left.  The inner border at the top still needs to be fudged, but I can do that next time.  I think my next goal will be to finish up the border at the top, and get parts of his wing done.  It's all concentric.  The almost white is at the center, and each band of color around it is darker.  You can see the almost white in the centers and the slightly darker color around it.  I've run into the bottom of the page, and if I get as much time on it next time as I did this time, I may even finish up the page.  Whoo hoo!!!  I love working on this one.  It's such a challenge to "see" the fractional stitches.  Really cool.  Thanks again to Rebecca Jo, who gave me the chart when she got frustrated with the fractionals.  I love it!!

     And next up is Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek)

.  I got a lot done on it Thursday, but not quite as much as I wanted to.  I wanted to finish up the color I'm working on, but it's gotten soooooooo loooooooong, I had to quit.  I was tired, and all that doing this and skipping that many is a recipe for disaster when tired.  Still, I got a lot done, and I'm happy with it.  I'm using such pretty colors on the sky, it's hard for me to put it down.  So far they're all shades of purple and blue, both of which I love.  I've got about ten more long rows of this color to do, and then I have to put in the short rows.  You can see where part way along, I suddenly got close enough to start doing the next band down.  So I'll go back to the beginning of that band and do that too, before going on to the next color.

     And lastly, thanks so much to Tora, who made my bracelet.  

She's learning Kumihimo (pronounced coo mee hee moh), and made me this.  It's awesome.  I picked the DMC colors out and she made it with them.  It's Bengals orange and black, and I'm wearing it now.  The only problem I had with it, is I can't get it on one handed, lol.  I had all kinds of trouble getting it on.  Finally, I put it in my purse and had mom do it for me.  So now it's staying on.  I'm thrilled with it.  Now I have two Bengals bracelets.  (Julie made me one too.  Hers is awesome also.)  Thanks again to the blogger (I can't remember who it was) who recommended Picmonkey.  It's fabulous, and I love playing with it.  As you can see, I made orange and black stripes around the bracelet pic, because I CAN!!!!!  LOL, I've enjoyed playing with it quite a bit, and I'm afraid when they start charging for it, I'll have to pay for it.  I love being able to make backgrounds and such.  It's awesome.  (And free for now, so go try it, and get addicted too.  www.picmonkey.com)

     That's it for me today.  Hope you're all having a wonderful day, and happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.  I hope you're having a great special day with your children.  (Human children and furchildren too.)