Siren Song, Gracie update and Stitching update

Sorry it's been a week or so.  Gracie has continued to be ill and I have been spending a lot of time taking her to the vet.  We almost lost her Monday night.  When I got home from work she was having difficulty breathing, x-rays revealed she had a dangerous build up of fluid around her bronchials.  This was a new symptom, whether it's related to  everything else or something different we don't know.  Cortisone and Lasix were given and within 30 minutes she was acting like nothing was wrong.  Unfortunately, it didn't last and today found us back at the vet with the fluid building again.   Both vets are confused and have no real answers.  Continued prayers would be appreciated.

Last week I concentrated on The Inn and made quite a bit of progress considering I didn't stitch for more than an hour each night instead of my normal 2-3 hours.  Gotta love a red building!  Looking forward to seeing it all stitched.

This week I've been working on Forest Snowfall.  Shouldn't be too long before it's done.  I really like this one.  The fabric, the softness of the colors, the little deer...fun stitch!

Sometimes, I'm surprised by the patterns/charts that catch my eye.  It's common knowledge amongst my friends that almost anything with a house in it will catch my eye.  Or charts with elegant women like Elizabeth will give me itchy fingers.  But last week when Connie (thanks friend, I hope I can return the favor sometime) brought her spring issue of Just Cross Stitch to work with her, I was taken by surprise by the strength of my reaction to one of the charts in it.  Little drops of drool started forming in the corners of my mouth, my heart started racing and I couldn't quit looking at the picture.  It was not something I would ever have thought would attract me so strongly.  At first I tried to fight it.  I have too many things going right now.  Elizabeth, Tuscan Rose, The Inn and Forest Snowfall.  I had no business lusting after this pattern.  So I walked away and went to the back room to work.  But the image kept flashing before my eyes and before I knew it, there I was thumbing through the magazine again to look at the picture.  Connie was giving me the stink eye, I could tell she wasn't feeling the attraction nor was she hearing the siren song.  Forcing myself back to work I tried to put it out of my head.   But try as I might...every time I went up front I'd look at it and say, I don't know what it is Connie but man do I like this piece.  And she'd just look at me with that are you kidding me look and go on about her work.  As I was framing, I was running different fabrics through my mind, oh that would look awesome, oh no, that wouldn't be right, hmmmm....that could be cool.  AHA!  That's the perfect fabric!  Abandoning my current frame job, I went back to the front and pulled out R & R's Garden State Java.  Yep, it would be awesome.  Then sanity prevailed and I put the fabric back on the shelf and went back to work.  By the end of the day I must have ogled that pattern a hundred times trying to figure out what the attraction was.  It couldn't be the subject matter, I've never been attracted to this particular subject.  The colors are gorgeous but so are the colors for a million other charts. The finishing, while nice wasn't it either.  Finally, at the end of the day, after catching me fondling the magazine again, Connie said..."You know you can have that magazine if you want it.  There's nothing in it I want to stitch."  Squealing with delight I snatched it up, grabbed the fabric and announced that I would be taking both home so I could pull the floss and do a floss toss.  Maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be as beautiful as I was thinking it would be.  Arriving home, I raced downstairs and started pulling floss.  GORGEOUS!!!  The fabric was perfect.  The floss colors were beautiful.  No way was I going to be able to walk away from this piece.  Resigning myself to yet another gotta stitch it before I die project, I took the fabric back to the shop the next day and promptly cut my piece.  Now, lest you think I have absolutely no self control at all, I want you to know that I haven't started the actual stitching of this piece yet.  Yet, being the operative word here.  I am trying very hard to wait until I finish the Little House and Country Cottage pieces.  So far I am keeping to that promise but I won't/can't say how much longer I can wait.  I'm stitching as fast as I can on the other two but dang, that siren song is hard to resist!!!    I suppose I should show you a picture of the chart that has so captivated me.  Maybe one of you can tell me why.  Personally, I think I must have owned something like it or stitched something like it in a past life.  If I had a past life.  :)  Anyway, here it is in all it's splendor, Old World Floral...tada!

Now don't you go giving me the stink eye like Connie and Mary Ann did.   You know you like it.  Just admit it now and heed the Sirens' Song.  I know you can hear it!!

Take care till next time!

Julie