I have only been able to get a little stitching and reading done which is disappointing to me because I was looking forward to a long weekend of catch up. But as the saying goes "the best laid plans of mice and men...".
My most exciting thing is that last week I purchased a Nook HD+. Let me tell you I love this thing. I knew I wanted to get a tablet/reader but wasn't sure which one, so I have been researching the heck out of them. For awhile I was swaying between an iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab but then out of nowhere Barnes and Noble decided to add Google Play to their Nook. This was the clincher for me. The price tag of the Nook HD+ was very comfortable (especially since I had a store credit) and the reviews were very favorable. I must say that I am loving it. The only caveat is that the lauded battery life is not as true as claimed, but I was prepared for this because the reviews warned that the extended battery life was based on only using the Nook as a reader. I guess if you were on a very long plain trip, this might come in handy. I haven't downloaded any movies yet but my son did let me piggyback on his HuluPlus account. The video quality is very nice. Barnes and Noble also has read-to-me books which appealed to me for my grandchildren.
On the stitching front, I had a horrible tragedy. My Ink Circle's Monkey Wrench met with a horrible death. On one of the days when I was sick, I left my stitching bag out. Apparently this was a signal to Bella the Baleful who decided that it must be punished. She tore into that bag like it was rice paper. So many small things destroyed, the hand made bag and 11 inch q-snap also destroyed, and finally my Monkey Wrench destroyed. At the time, I didn't have the heart to catalog all of the destruction with pictures, but I did save the Monkey Wrench and later took a picture.
Most of the destruction is on the far right side but the destruction of the fabric is so complete that I can't repair it. At some later time, I might turn some of the elements into ornaments. I will eventually redo this piece because I really liked the look of it but for now I just don't have the heart to pick it back up.
So my new OSADS piece will be Diane Arthur's Bethlehem. I began this piece a couple of years ago and it will be stitched on 40 count using Gentle Art's Espresso Bean. If I remember my dimensions right, the finished piece will be about 1 1/2 inches by about 10 inches If stitched in recommended dimensions it is 3 in. by 20 in.. For such a tiny piece, I have found that it is stitching up relatively quickly.
I did manage to "finish" something while I was sick. Many years ago, I picked up an EGA project that was an Assisi inspired tin box cover for a regular Altoid tin and a mini tin. The regular tin is an oak leaf and the mini tin is an acorn. I made a few changes to threads, mainly because I couldn't find all of them and the fabrics don't match, again because it wasn't until I was halfway through the oak leaf that I realized I didn't have all the materials in the kit. Who knows what I did with them, I probably scavenged them for some other project. I put finish in quotes because I didn't actually finish them up to be toppers yet. I really do need to set aside a day just for finishing finishes. This project stitched up very easily and if finishing it is do not time consuming, I might make a few other in different color combos. The topper part of the project is finished in a traditional manner, but the inside of the tin is lined with the print fabric. I have never lined a tin and am anxious to see how it turns out. If it's not to hard I have at least a dozen Altoid tins hanging around that will become future projects.
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