I finished the baby's face today :-) I would like to continue on tonight with Mermaid Heaven, but I do have another stitching obligation for tonight.... so back into the satchel it goes now...
And, here is tonight's progress on Celtic Band Sampler. I finally made it through the blackwork band and have a much more enjoyable band underway now :-)
I received my FOTM from Heaven Lee Creations today - it is 32 ct jobelan in their new shade, Grapefruit. I could not be more pleased! It is a fairly deep sunny yellow with pinkish tint to it swirled in! Gorgeous! And I also received from them the specialty fabric for Emma's Garden. Gorgeous! I was warned that this company has had problems in the past... I had good luck with them way back when I ordered the Dragon Myst lugana I am using for Legends of the Dragons. I did not want to be scared off about them, as the Dragon Myst is so well dyed and is outstanding, but I do recall it took quite some time to receive the fabric. Well, my report on how this company does is the same.... gorgeous, high quality fabric, but you have to be patient about receiving it. I think the specialty fabric took a month to come in. The FOTM took a week, but the PayPal invoice was delayed from them.... so patience is a virtue, and since their fabric is so high quality, I elect to be patient and stick with them :-)

I also received a large package from Stitching Bits & Bobs today containing a few orders all together (which is great - Bobbie always refunds the extra shipping paid... cool!). I received the fat eighth of Crystal Splash Cashel form Picture This Plus:I think a dragon or other fantasy design will look great on this! Also in the large package were all the Mill Hill beads and Needlepaints for Celtic Summer (mmmm, can you tell I want to start this one soon??!!), Autumn Winds (really nice chart, and I think that new Grapefruit FOTM may be just perfect for it!!), Red Dragon Bookmark, Thistle Stop and a skein of Finley Gold Crescent Colours for Summer House (but the skein of Dandelion Stem is backordered... maybe it will come in with the backordered magnifica beads I am still waiting for...).

Also some goodies from ebay today! I received the back issue of The Stitchery that has Black Swan's Wisteria Fairy in it, plus the Fire Dragon chart also came in - wow, was opening packages for quite some time this morning!

I am feeling so much better today to have learned that Karen is doing very well today in light of some personal difficulties that could easily be devastating. She is a good girl and a tough cookie, and I sure do love her! I hope she continues to just keep growing and enjoying her new life :-)
Daylily: You DevilDaylily: Pixie ParasolThis is not any kind of spectacular picture of my Peace rose, but I am so thrilled to see it! My father in law gave us this rose bush the first year we moved into this house. We had to move it last fall because we lost a lot of rose bushes the previous winter due to having someone else plow our driveway and not knowing where the roses were - he uprooted most of my bushes. Then my mother in law apparently ran this one right over and we thought it was dead. But no, here it is! I am thrilled!!!!! I love this rose :-)

Thank you to everyone who has sent comments about my garden. Yes, it is large. But right now the blooms are just scattered here and there.... around mid-July there should be more larger clusters in the garden in bloom - then I hope to put up photos that will show areas instead of single blooms.... And, no, I really don't remember the names of most of my plants any longer. I used to know and kept a database, but my plant tags rarely survive the winter or the wildlife, so I had to give up on that! :-)

***I was up until 2 AM watching the NASCAR race and stitching, so this entry was edited with the CBS WIP pic and this sports update (a pretty good night): Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4... and Ryan Newman moved up to 6th in points after coming in 14th in the Pepsi 400 in Daytona, FL...after a 2 and a half hour rain delay (which was really OK with me.... the race started just moments after the Red Sox game ended.... which saved me from missing any of either!!)

Stitched on today: Mermaid Heaven and Celtic Band Sampler