A Very Happy Little Girl

     And I don't mean Yes Dear.  She's actually very mad at me, lol.  I'll explain later.  First, India got my package today.  She LOVED it.  (Vicki didn't tell me that, I saw he look on her face.  It's awesome.)  Vicki told me a couple of days ago that the package had arrived.  (For those who've forgotten, I made Meerkat Mere Cat for Vicki's daughter India.  Just cause she's cute, and because she promised me meerkat refrigerator art.  She loves meerkats.  And she came up with the subject matter on her own!!)  So anyways, she said she would draw me something for the fridge, and I saw the Festive Cheercat a few days later.  Since he's posing with beer, I thought that may not be the best thing for small eyes.  But I found the Meerkat - Mere Cat pattern, and thought, "Hmmmm...  Wonder if a seven year old will get the pun."  Vicki assured me that she would, so I made it and had it framed.  I finally sent it off two Fridays ago (the postman took a LONG time to deliver it), and Vicki IMed me that it had arrived.  She offered to have India open it on webcam, but since I'm hardly ever up before she goes to bed, I told her to just take a couple of pics for me to put on my blog.  She did, and they're fabulous.  You can see how happy she is to have it.  See for yourself!!

If she isn't the cutest thing since the daily squee, I'll eat my hat.  (Yes, I do have one.  Somewhere.  I think it's in the magic closet...)  I love the smile.  I've talked to her several times on messenger, and she is sooooo well mannered and her vocabulary is amazing.  (I think she's eight now, but I'm not sure.)  Vicki's ignoring me, so I can't say for sure.  Drat it.  Oh, well.  Vicki said she would love the pun, and from what I know of her, I thought she would too.  Apparently, she did.  Talk about an ear to ear grin!!

     And my other girl is mad at me.  Yes Dear was throwing all kinds of fits last night.  She had issue with the cat in the hallway.  Yeah, I know, there's not supposed to be a cat in the hallway.  Last night, when I opened the door to go out in the hall (I needed to go to the bank and make a deposit), there was a beautiful grey male cat there.  Gorgeous!!  I made kissy sounds and he came right up to me.  So I petted him for a minute.  I thought (and I was right) he belonged in apartment one.  So I knocked on their door.  No answer.  I knocked harder.  Still no answer.  Adam, the man that lives there, works nights, but he was off last night.  His wife, Kelly, works days.  So they must have both been asleep or in the back of the house where they couldn't hear me.  I, of course, worried about the poor thing.  So I got in Yes Dear's food and got him a bowl and some water.  I opened the door and went out to give it to him, when...  HISSSSSSS came from behind me.  (She does NOT like other animals.  She stalked poor Rosa's dog the whole week he was here.  She's extremely territorial.  So she's making demonic cat sounds (my brother coined the term with his wife's cat, Reese) and he's just laying there getting petted and looking at her with a smug look.  (I'm sure he was all, "Look at this, your human's petting ME!!!!!" and she was ticked off.  Totally demonic cat sounds, lol

.)  Of COURSE I took some pics.  Gorgeous!!!  Well, now Multiply has put them all out of order.  Stupid thing.  But isn't he beautiful.  (Ignore my hairy arm around him in the close up, lol.  It's a curse.)  I love the way he looks.  So fey, almost.  I wish Yes Dear would let me have another cat, but she refuses, vehemently, every time I bring another one around her.  Diva, lol.  Anyways, I caught up with Adam outside this morning, and he said he must have gotten out while Adam was doing laundry.  Too bad, I would have loved to have kept him.  He purred for me and rubbed against me (I think that's the reason Yes Dear is sooooooo mad, lol).  Ah, well, she's my monster, and I've spoiled her beyond measure.  I like her that way, for the most part.  

     And if the cat pics hadn't taken up so much room, I'd be showing progress piccys now...

     Okay, cat piccys over.  Now for some good progress piccys.  I'll start out with my pitiful start on the next ornie I'm working on.  And when I say pitiful, I totally mean it.  I got no ornie work done this week.  I was catching up on IHSW posts, and it took me till Wed to get caught up.  And things were happening with my health (something too personal to share, and somewhat painful), and it just got away from me.  So I finished up Christmas Bluebird of Happiness (M Designs).

  I think I said so last week, but I did make one change.  Rosa and I were talking last week, and I asked her what she thought of my changing the color of the Smyrna Stitches.  They were charted in white, but I think the fabby was supposed to be a colored one.  Since I knew the white wouldn't show up well on white fabby, I asked her if I should make the Smyrna's the same color as the bird, the bsing, or the red hat.  We tossed ideas back and forth, and finally decided on the color of the bsing.  I really liked the color, so that helped.  I think it turned out cute.  You can really see the Smyrna stitches, and the bsing.  When I did it, I was straining to see and thinking, "I wonder if this is gonna show up..."  As you can see, it shows up great.  My old eyes, I guess.  I was using my Ott lamp, so it shouldn't have been a light issue.  To finish him up, I did two Smyrna Stitches, and I put in the bsing and one cross.  ONE!!  Then I got the fabby moved in the Q-snap, pulled the first color of the next ornie, and wound the bobbin.  I pulled of a length and prepared to start.  I put in one stitch (actually, one half stitch) and the phone rang. 

 It was mom, needing me to do something for her on the PC.  And then...  I forgot about it.  I have one lousy half stitch in it, lol.  (It's Frosty Friends from Mosey and Me.)  I think it's the worst stitching day I've had in an age!!  But here the pitiful thing is.  Can you see my one tiny stitch?  I know, it's hard to see.  It's up in the top left.  You can barely see it, but I promise you, it's there.  Next week, I plan to get much more than this in.  Hopefully, a few hundred stitches, which is what I've been doing per day lately.  I just can't seem to put the stitching down!  Which is good, as I'm making lots of progress.  (And I've learned to use a pillow on the Adirondack chair, so no more ouchie butt.  Life is good.)

     Next up, my fave project atm.  It's Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek).  

I just LOVE this project.  Each week it endears me to it more.  I put in a HUGE amount of stitches last night.  I finished up the middle band of the purple I was working on, then put in the lower band of the same purple, and then put in a small band of darker purple up near the top.  It goes right under the kite.  It's turning out beautifully.  I did manage to mess up the lower band of the lighter purple, but I'm fudging it.  I had another two hundred stitches in before I realized I had made a mistake, and it's only sky, so I decided I'm not pulling it all out.  If I'd only had in fifty stitches, I would have.  But I had at least two hundred.  So fudging it works, lol.

     And I got in some good progress on Time To Go (Witch Stitch'n'Bits) this week. 

 I finished up the second row of ten by tens.  You can't tell from the photo, but what I have done is black,

 and three shades of brown.  I tried to take the photo from really 

close up in good light, but my camera just isn't making the distinction.  It's not the greatest camera.  I like it, and it works well for my needs most of the time, but it's not "seeing" the color variations.  Maybe in a few weeks.  I

 took it back off the Q-snap so I could grid in the rest of the first page.  And maybe some of the second, so I don't have to stop as often.  I enjoy working over one on such a small count.  It's challenging, and that always makes me happy.  I need to tell Freak I'm posting pics so he can see it.  I 

FINALLY got on game last night, and he said he had been about to call me and see if I was still alive.  Then he got sarcastic.  I guess you've been spending all your time stitching.  I was all, "Are you being sarcastic???"  And he was.  I know he was.  (He disappeared for a bit, then came back cause he'd gotten sidetracked.  He's a pita like that, lol.)  We did a run together, and it was fun.  I don't often do dungeon runs, so he has to get them while he can.

     I'm all caught up on blogs, but woefully behind on emails.  If you've sent me one, I'll get to it eventually.  If you need something, and it's important, leave a comment on my blog that you've sent me an email and I'll go find it.  I've been stitching six to eight hours a day, every day, so lots of progress, not much computer time.  I'll get back to it all eventually!  Hope you've all had

 a wonderful night dreaming sweet dreams.  I have to dog sit this weekend, so I probably won't be around much.  Stitching time though, whoo hoo!!!  And, btw, thanks to everyone who left a comment on my last post.  It's awesome to see how many of you posted your thoughts.  And thanks also for all the well wishes for my poor butt.  It's feeling much, MUCH better now!!