This was the second cross stitch project that I did. The pattern came from
a magazine but I don't remember which one at the moment. I stitched this
on the same even weave material that I'd done my first project, a sampler,
on. I remember vividly my elation and relief when I neared the end
of the project, having started with the rose and leaf to the right centre of the
heart and working my way all the way around the heart to the rose and leaf
on the left centre. The tips of the two leaves met on the exact same line,
exactly one space apart, as charted. I gave this piece to my parents and
they had it framed. It now hangs in my Mom's room at the retirement
residence.

Yesterday was a busy, run around day for us. It began when we picked my
Mom up to take her to her second dentist appointment at 10:00. She's
having a series of fillings done, about five in all, and they are being spread
out over about three appointments. Once she was settled in the dentist's
chair DH and I sat in the waiting room, where he read multiple copies of
old issues of Reader's Digests and I cross stitched.

Once done at the dentist we came back here for lunch, and to relax a bit
and to let Mom visit with her grand-cats. Then we took her back to the
residence and dropped her off before heading off on a mission. Last week
Mom's television died a dramatic death, after years of service. She was
given a temporary loaner from the Residence to tied her over until we
could get out and find her a new one.

So DH and I started at the mall, with a visit to Walmart, where I found a
nice 27 inch LCD flat screen tv that would have been perfect for her.
Unfortunately they didn't have any in stock at that store, nor any other
store in the general area. Great. I dithered over other models for sale
there but was rather fixated on the first choice and couldn't accurately
judge the merits of the other tv's because of that. We decided to shop
around some and walked through the mall to Zeller's, which is sort of
Canada's answer to Walmart, only not anywhere near as successful.
Walmart is always buzzing with activity, whereas in Zeller's you could
shoot a canon down any of the aisles and you'd probably only hit the
odd sales person. Zeller's tv selection was a joke. No wonder no one
shops there. So back to Walmart. Still dithering. DH suggested the
Sony tv store in a strip mall down the road from the main mall. Went
there....no luck. Tried Canadian Tire (sells everything, including tires)
but had no luck there either. Running out of options and reluctant to
head out of town we decided to go back to Walmart, of course. I
toughened up my resolve, tuned out the lovely LCD tv that I'd first
picked out, and chose a 27 inch regular tv that still had a nice picture
and over all look to it. Paid for tv, got it brought out to our car,
tied to the back of the car (we were only driving a short distance) and
headed back to Mom's to set it up. Phew!!!

We had dinner with Mom, watched the news on her new tv, which she
loved, and then came home to relax. Spent much of the evening on
the phone with various friends and relations. It was just one of those
nights when the phone kept ringing. Ended the evening reading blogs.

Today is laundry day, and would be cleaning day but my vacuum
cleaner is out for repairs and won't be back until mid week. DH
leaves for his training course in Montreal this afternoon and I'm
missing him already. He's at church right now. I'll work on my
Country Shops project this afternoon since I won't have much
time this coming week to do so. Making my own way to work on
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday means no time to stitch in
the mornings. Nuts!

It's been rainy, foggy and cool this weekend. The crocuses are
up and the flowers would be open, if the sun was shining. The
daffodils are coming up now. Still the odd patch of melting snow
around, but that's disappearing fast. The robins and the gold
finches are back and making a grand feast of our bird feeders.
Oh, and I saw a bunny in our yard this morning too, poking
around the garden and under the bird feeders. DH will be so
pleased. Lol!

Here's Rupert snoozing in the sun last weekend. Laying on his back. Love
his stripes.

Many thanks Shannon for your instructions and advice on how to use my
new hand dyed threads when I'm ready. I think that I'll stitch four of the
Little House Needleworks charts together on one piece of material and
frame them like that for hanging. Eventually I would like to get all of them
in the series. I've been enjoying my new stash so much, and I haven't
even begun stitching any of it yet.