3 Finishes and a Float!

 I did a big recataloging and recalculating of my stitching.  I had previously figured that I needed a finish every 11 days in order to finish all my stash before I was dead. So 26 finishes later, I somehow need a finish every 6 days....I'll have to start running and be a vegetarian again because I just need to live longer...it's my only hope, don't tell me to stop getting stash lol. 

I did get 3 summery finishes to round off 2023! First off is a kit from CrossStitcher, it was supposed to be a stuffed hanger with some stuffed strawberries dangling from it, but they lost me at "catch stitch the edges" - I gave up and did a running stitch because that's as fancy as I get, but I'm deeply in love with how it came out:

My next finish is Tending the Hollyhocks by Calico Confectionary:

And then my last one is a Mill Hill kit called Lizard. On our honeymoon, we stayed in Mexico in this wonderful, gorgeous former Spanish monastery with peacocks wandering around and a gecko that kept crawling across our roof, and I've had a soft spot for geckoes ever since.

I took Lizard on our trip to Pasadena, we came up for a long weekend while I helped decorate a float for the Rose Parade again.  My job was taking a tray of cut up statice and pulling out anything brown with a pair of tweezers:

The float this year has a Hopi Indian theme, and the pictures on the baskets are all organ donors:

My shift was cut off early because the florists arrived, and volunteers aren't allowed on the floats until the florists are done.  It was amazing to watch cart after cart of flowers get rolled in, and some volunteers are on mister duty to walk around half the night spraying the flowers to keep them fresh for the parade.  Someone else had the job of filling about a million vials with water for all the roses.  

 I had a chance to walk past a graveyard of past floats - they try not to throw anything away. These scrap heaps are scattered around the parking lot.  The dumpsters have big signs that they're for compost only - none of the plants go to a landfill. The dumpsters are provided by Miracle- Gro, so maybe you're buying ground up float if you buy a bag of compost?

This is the closest to the parade I've ever decorated, so I got to see the big tent city set up at the front for people from all the floats to check in.  I took a picture of the Louisiana tent because my family lived in Gretna until Katrina.  They moved to Miami, which in my opinion is a stupid place to move if hurricanes are your problem, but they won't come to California because of the earthquakes, lol. Aside from a nod to my kin, I also appreciated that while every other float had a generic white tent and food in foil pans, Lousiana had a full building with an awning and a patio and a menu of proper southern food and some beauty queens circulating.  Classic Southern!

Since my shift ended early I went back to the hotel and picked up the pack and we went for a little nature hike. We saw our first bobcat:

And Kuna took a nice early bedtime.  She spends most of her life like this now, this is what retirement is like for dogs lol.

Bilious Birds Finish!

  This is Grave Fellows by Lindy Stitches.  The brownish birds were supposed to be gray, but it was too gray so I switched to something that I thought looked more autumnal but now that it's done it looks a little baby poopy.   It makes me laugh so I guess I'll keep it! My poor birds!

In more uplifting news, Dinosaurs has more sky:

Aliens are sucking up another human:

There's a branch growing through Autumn Meditation:

And my Zinnias are starting to bloom:

We had a break in at my church and had to cancel Ash Wednesday services so I don't feel like my Lent has gotten off to a proper start.  I haven't even decided what to give up.  But it's supposed to be a wonderful rainy weekend so I'm hoping to get more into the spirit.  Who would ever break into a church? Even if you aren't religious you have to know that's some bad juju. The mind boggles.

Two finishes and a Sweetheart!

 I'll start with the sweetheart - Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is hosting a Valentine's blog hop. We all sent her a picture of finish for Valentine's, and she assigned it to someone else's blog, so now we have to hunt it down and figure out who our secret sweetheart is.  This is the valentine I received, I haven't found who it's from yet:

I'm hunting for the one I sent!  This was a design from Tiny Modernist called "Elements of Love".  I was a science teacher before I became a pastry cook, so I have a lot of science-y designs in my life:

My two finishes:

"Harvest Sampler" (just in time for Thanksgiving, haha)

Just Cross Stitch December 2020

stitched on Oatmeal Aida with threads from a kit (one of those big plastic envelopes glued to a magazine that says you can make 25 cards or something and it has a bunch of threads and ribbons and felt in it)

The colors aren't as charted because the threads weren't any brand, they just looked autumnal and I wanted to use them.

"Fruity Gift Tags" from The World of Cross Stitching, it was from 2022 but it doesn't say the month.  This was a kit that came with the magazine. I'm supposed to cut it up and make little gift tags with it, but I kind of like how they look together; once I'm done stitching I lose interest anyway so they may stay together as one fruitastic team:

I still have my dream of finishing a WIP every 11 days, and this puts me exactly on track right now - 4 finishes in 44 days,  Now I have to find something I think I can finish by the 24th!