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.