Summer and the Living is Busy!

To show I still stitch, even though things around here have been crazy, what is up with that? Here's my most recent picture of 13th Colony Bay broken down into three pictures because I couldn't find a chair to stand on when I took the picture. Below you see the almost completed part 1. I bounce back and forth between the sections and I am now working on the clouds in part. 1 and finishing up those trees there along the left side:





Below is part 2, I've worked on the trees, and am getting ready to add some of the green, I've also been working on some of the fussier areas, around the island and the boat. I'm trying to get to the point where I just have to fill in the water. I am so in love with this design. At first I thought I would regret attempting such a big project just because it would take me forever to complete it but all in all the project has moved along at a nice pace and has been a joy. The charts are clear and easy to read and my horrible photography does not do it justice. I dream about this piece. I really dream about being on that island, living in that house, swimming in the bay, reading a book under the shade of the trees. Oh yes, this is my dream life right here.




And here is a ridiculously bad picture of part 3. I had to take it at a funny angle because of the sun and the shadows. The tree is in the center of part 3 so there's a lot left to do to the right of the tree. I wish I could stitch on this 24 hours a day, at the same time I wish it was completed and hanging on my wall.

Last Friday my neighbors had a yard sale. For the first time ever I beat the local antiques guy to the good stuff. I scored these old FireKing bowls, the large one is a Pyrex bowl and the red one is unmarked, I love them so much. I got them for the bargain basement price of $3, the whole set, $3. For 50¢ I picked up the cute cabbage tea pot and the Corelle Ivy print stoneware pot. I actually got two of the Ivy pots and gave one to my friend Pam. I never ever get a deal, ever. I was very happy last Friday morning.

For another 50¢ I scored the little music box teapot and for another $3 I got the cake stand and six dessert plates. I also managed to walk away with a spreader, a wheelbarrow and 8, count them 8, gas cans for another $7. In my excitement over the spreader I overlooked an antique sewing box filled with old scissors and buttons, a man bought it for $2. I was so disappointed but I couldn't complain too much, although I started to offer my neighbor $5 and start a bidding war with the guy but decided that would be in bad taste. I let the sewing box go.

The picture below is currently the background on my computer. The pier there was wiped out by Hurricane Ivan and then Hurricane Dennis did his fair share of damage. The county had decided not to rebuild but now I hear they are reconsidering. We miss the pier. We spent a lot of happy family time fishing off that pier.

On the topic of summer reading, I just finished the new Lee Child, Jack Reacher novel, Bad Luck and Trouble, read it in one day. Have I said how much I love my library and the fact that Lee Child's talents obviously haven't caught on down here yet? I also read Flush by Carl Hiaasen. I enjoyed it more than Hoot. I can't recommend Carl Hiaasen enough. Sure his plots are all a little, tiny bit convulted but the man loves Florida, hates developers and has a twisted sense of humor, my kind of guy. Skinny Dip is my favorite book by him. I also reread Swiss Family Robinson and have determined that I could have survived on a desert island if I had been able to retrieve all the supplies off the boat and if that boat had been really well stocked like to help set up a new colony somewhere. The Robinsons had it a lot easier than I remembered, then again maybe I am a bit cynical now. Next up in the pile, from the library, For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison. I'm also rereading On Writing by Stephen King.