First finish of Summer

Yay! I finished LK "Summer" banner last night while watching Project Runway with my husband. He grumbled over watching it, but then got into the episodes and which designers we thought would or should have won the challenges. I giggled a bit hearing his opinion on women's fashions, but it was a fun way to spend a Saturday night. As usual I changed most of the colors on this one to whatever I had in my stash. I also changed one of the fish to a clown fish, we watch Finding Nemo and Finding Dory a lot in my house! I stitched it on a scrap that I think is big enough to fit at least two more of these on, so I may wait to actually display it until I have the other ones done. 

A little more progress on July Word Play by Country Stitches. I am a little confused on these charts. They are designed by Brenda Gervais of "With Thy Needle and Thread". They didn't come out that long ago so I don't know why they are "Country Stitches" instead of "With thy Needle". I bought the little charms to the left at Michael's and plan to use the anchor charm instead of stitching it.

I did find more of the charts on 123 Stitch, all I am missing now is February and August. So I will be on the hunt for those, as I would definitely like to stitch all of them. I love December with the cute Santa, and April with the bunny in the wagon. One thing about the charts that irked me though, was she uses many of the same colors but changes the symbol for them between the charts. Why not just use the same symbol throughout? 

Lastly here is my progress on Ashley. I feel like I got a lot done this last week. All of the flowers above her to the left are new, and I did more of her skirt. The big difference is of course her face, I couldn't wait any longer, and did all of the back-stitching on her neck/shoulders and face. She is so pretty! Makes me excited to finish her.

And lastly a shot of our summer bird feeder. I know I have posted pictures of the lovebirds in our neighborhood before, but I think it's so funny to have flocks of wild parrots in our neighborhood. They are not much bigger than parakeets, and are bright green with red faces. From what I understand they were originally from Africa, and are well suited to the heat. They live in pretty large flocks, and we always see them in groups of two or three at the feeder.

What I am reading this week: I just finished "Lost in a Book" by Jennifer Donnelly. If you have a tween-teenage daughter in your house, I highly recommend this book! I loved it. It is based off of the Beauty and the Beast story. I bought it for my oldest's daughter, and I borrowed it from her after she had read it. I finished it in one night it was so good. Very imaginative addition to the original fairy-tale. 

What I am watching: Well besides old Project Runway episodes, we watched "The Boy" this weekend. A PG-13 horror movie starring Lauren Cohen (of Walking Dead fame). She is a nanny hired by an older couple to care for a doll who they treat as their son. It was creepy, and actually a well-thought out horror story- not just blood and gore (actually really not much blood-more just creepy old mansion and creepy looking doll). Both my husband and I thought it was a good scary movie.

I've also fallen into watching floss tube and love it! I can listen/watch while stitching, and who doesn't love seeing other stitcher's gorgeous finishes! I had to giggle to myself when I realized I had been pronouncing Lugana wrong all these years! I've been saying it La-goona when apparently it it Lew-ghana, after all these years stitching I still have lots to learn. Now I am trying to think back if I have ever gone into my  LNS and asked for it that way.