This is a water colour painting done of DH and I by my very dear and
talented friend Elaine as a wedding present 17 years ago. Can you believe
that it's been that long Elaine? Elaine is one of those naturally talented
people who can do anything artsy wise and make it beautiful. She is
blessed with natural talent. This is her first, and so far only water colour
painting. She used several pictures of DH and I to get the look and a bit of
artistic license to compose the final picture. She gave it to us on our
wedding day and it just about knocked my socks off. It is something I
treasure, just as I treasure her friendship. We have known each other for
almost 30 years now and I know that Elaine is always there for me, as I
hope she knows that I am always here for her. I am very lucky to have her
for a dear friend. Oh, and although DH still pretty much looks like he does
in the picture (except for touches of the inevitable grey in hair and
moustache) I don't look much like that any more. Sigh!

I've been stitching away on Prairie Schooler's A Prairie Garden, ignoring
the temptation to start any other projects so that I can concentrate on this
one. I have stitched 9 squares so far and just have 3 more left to do. Seeing
each flower come alive is still a thrill and I am enjoying this piece very much.
Please excuse the wrinkles and the hoop mark in the above picture. I was
stitching this in a Q snap, but in the last few weeks I've started using my
old, reliable spring hoop which I tend to prefer even though there is a lot of
fabric spilling around me when I work with it.

Oh, and I've made a major...er...adjustment with this project. See the
sun flower on the left of the project in the middle row? Well, it's a solid
piece of grid stitching in my project, but the official piece is suppose to look
like this...I ...um...decided to stitch mine as a solid piece and I really like it like that.
And it was so much fun to just sit and stitch it, without referring constantly
back and forth to the chart. At all. So there we are.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Last night was dinner at the pub for Valentine's Day. Aside from the
usual delicious main course and an incredibly scrumptious Caesar Salad to
start, the real treat was the desert platter that they do every Valentines
for couples to share. Servings of at least half a dozen deserts to share
between DH and I, and we even managed to be gracious and make sure
we each got a fairly equal portion of each. Actually, the Valentines
dinner at the pub was being served on the actual day, which I believe is
next Wednesday, but DH and I don't like going out on week nights after
work, so Brenda and Tracy at the pub made a special dinner just for us
last night. And what blog entry would be complete without a picture of Rupert taking
possession of a box in which an order of books arrived from Indigo/Chapters
a week ago. See my book blog for more info about that incident of self
indulgence.