I said I did have a finish and here it is...another of Pine Mountains pillow kits, which I actually like stitching because it's easy...once you get the centering, etc. correct, which, of course, I never do.  I count, recount, measure, pin...honestly I do everything to get it correct and then I'm amazed that somehow, someway things went wrong.  So then the scramble starts to position things so you can't tell I screwed up....or in the end use a button or buttons placed strategically to hid the fact that I screwed up.  As usual, I miscounted yet again but was able to wiggle things around so it looks alright.  These pillows with the words on them also have a bit more stitching that a lot of the Pine Mountain kits, but it's still an easy stitch, just takes a little more time.  The second picture is the watch fob I did for Renee for her birthday.  I was so inspired by Stasi Buhrman's gift to me, plus many of the examples of these fobs shown on the internet, but Stasi's mermaid sealed the deal for me so I searched for the perfect mermaid to fit inside.  I found Jeannette Douglas' "Seaside Accessories" chart had the mermaid as well as the wreath of seaweed (I'm calling it seaweed...I don't think Jeannette did) so I  pulled out my 40 ct...OMG...and started to stitch.  The wreath is stitched over 2 so that was no big deal but for the mermaid to fit inside the wreath I had to go to over 1..again OMG....my peepers and light were working overtime on this believe me.  I started with Overdyed Floss but it proved too think (1 strand of the 6 was too thick) so ditched the first piece and restitched it using silks and was able to stitch it beautifully.  Sara has since gotten the Tudor Silk in the shop,  which is the fiber used on small counts like 52 ct. so I'm certain it would have worked here...but we didn't have it in when I was working on this piece.  In fact I will never had to use Tudor because unlike Paola, I'm never going to attempt stitching 52 ct.  She's stitched on 52 ct. like I stitch on 28...honestly I don't know how she does it.  Anyway,  I wanted teeny tiny shells to attach to the wreath and put one on her hand as if she was holding it, but after scouring the shell shop bins we could find small shells but nothing teeny enough for this piece.  All in all I was thrilled with the end result, and I hope Renee enjoys it.  And that ends gift stitching for a while.  So I'm really forging ahead with pieces started but not finished and trying to clean up some of the mess I've created in my stitching bags.  Wish me luck.  Tonight I work (I'm only working a couple of days a week in the shop now..whoooohooo) and I do miss seeing new things when they come in, and I use to love ordering new things, but I've given all that up and now it's Sara's job.  I come in and take a few minutes to scour the new rack to see if anything new has come up and then unless Sara has a job for me I sit and stitch or play.  Retirement is a wonderful thing and a state to be enjoyed and believe me I'm enjoying it.  By the way, the September Jackie DuPlessis class piece has been put into the catalog because I wasn't able to get it on the blog so if you want to know what that class it go to the catalog and put in Jackie DuPlessis, or really just look at "Just Arrived" and it should be there since I just put it in the oher day.  Have a great day...talk to you soon.