The end is near....summer's end that is

I'm in working hell right now as Judy is off for a week and I'm in the shop everyday.  Mixed with this nightmare is Friday's epic work problem.  Brian has an appointment with a surgeon which is good news, however, the appointment is in Annapolis so Mary has to leave the hotel by 7 a.m.  Since Mary is the person at the front desk as well as the morning person in charge of the continental breakfast, that means that I now have to be at the hotel by 7 on Friday morning and have to take charge of the continental breakfast which is way more work than I want to do.  UGH!!!  But I'm always telling the girls we can do anything as a family, so as leader of this motley crew I have to step it up and do it, but in the future I might have to explain I'm not the one that wants to step it up, so when I say "we can do anything, I mean they can do anything."  Fortunately Mary has help coming at 8:30 so I'm only running for 1 1/2 hrs.  I feel sorry for tenants who get up early on Friday, they are in for a world of disappointment.  But at 10:00 I do go to work in the shop so that nightmare will be over, but then another one might begin with me in a shop where I know next to nothing anymore about yarns.  And of course 70 % of the people are asking me questions about just that.  I can talk circles around anyone when it involves counted cross stitch, but frankly when it comes to yarn I'm just not that interested.  But I'm going to have to get interested since it's embarrassing when someone asks me a question and I can't answer it without calling Sara.  She doesn't help because Pat knits a model,  Sara puts in on display and doesn't label it so I'm constantly complaining about that, since while I may be able to figure out which yarn was used, there's no way to figure out what pattern was used.  She finally started labeling some of them since I had a real bitchfest yesterday since the morning was filled with knitters.  When she realized rolling her eyes at me wasn't working she decided to label the models.  Mission accomplished!    With all the work I am not stitching as much as I usually do, but I did get Clementine done, (but not the finishing)  so I got to start something new.  I'm sure many of you have seen the facebook post of the ornament below done on perforated paper.  I saw it and instantly knew I wanted to stitch them.

 There is a series of these Christmas Ornaments by Hands on Design, "Chalkboard Ornaments", and since they are shown on black linen I just knew I would not do them because the darker the fabric the more I struggle to see it.  But when I saw a stitcher had done the entire collection on black perforated paper I was on board.  They really pop on black and  I love the fact that you can cut out around the leaves and the banner so you get some dimension to it.  And it's so easy to finish, just black felt sewn on the back.  Yes right up my alley.  Of course, unlike linen, you have to stitch every hole even though it's on black you have to stitch the black.  But small sacrifice to make for easier finishing.  The linen ornaments are stitched on 32 ct. and the paper is 14 count, so perforated is a tad bit larger, but I love them anyway.  I embellished with red Mill Hill beads instead of stitching holly berries and I switched out the Gentle Arts Geranium floss for Gentle Arts Buckeye Scarlet as I wanted a more Christmas Red.  My Geranium has more of a pink hue to it, but since it's overdyed that could have been just the batch here. I'm already more than 1/2 way through my 2nd ornament.  Fun, fun, fun! and I plan to keep going.  I had the cording in my stash from one of my purchases at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  Love it when I find something in my stash which I purchased before I knew what I was going to do with it.  I justifies all my hobby purchases even when I haven't a clue.    Well that's all the news that's fit to print so I'll end here and get ready for whatever comes next.  Have a  great day!