Petal Fairy Happy Dance!

Here she is! Well, her first photo, that is. I started her on 2/11/05 and finished her on 8/3/05, using the rotation system. I will ask Mike to take her "official portrait' tomorrow using his better quality digital camera and his much, much better photography skills, and I shall post it in tomorrow's entry. I finished her at 11:19 PM, and it is bedtime, so that photo has to wait until tomorrow :-) I doubt you can even see the light yellow beading all around her skirt in this photo.... If you are stitching Petal Fairy, here are a few things I learned that might help you - you will use an entire spool of the #4 braid (I have about a 5" piece left over, that's it) - don't spill your 03036 beads, and don't even drop any, as you will need that whole container (I have about ten left, so if you need them, holler!!), and you will use almost an entire skein of DMC 745... so you might want to consider getting a second skein if you are using 28 ct - just stuff I learned, thought I would share with you. ...Also, I noticed something about Petal Fairy.... a lot of stitchers are asking about the "antennae" on her head.... well, the gardener in me has to answer this - those are not antennae. Those are her flower stamens. She is a flower fairy, her job is to fertilize and tend to the blooms - the stamen get that job done :-) Her skirt is made of lily petals (see Nora's little paragraph on the chart) - there are two stamen from the lily petals still attached to the front of her skirt - I think that is cool, and I don't know if you will think it is cool, but it tickled me to learn this :-) Nora is wonderfully botanically correct in her use of elements in this design, but to some, I guess, she appears alien-like. I saw on the Mirabilia BB that some stitchers are omitting her stamens. Well, she is going to be quite "infertile" without them - LOL!
I was kind of messing around with my camera this morning when I got to work. I had left it in my car, so I made use of it while I had some free time before my first client came in. I thought I would share with my pals some pics of my Haverhill, Massachusetts office.... this is where I work on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is my private psychotherapy office. I know, it is a strange looking building! The sidewalk is in the (lengthy) process of being torn up for more wrought iron work to go in the front while the landlord is making an apartment for himself on the ground floor. He is also going to add more wrought ironwork to the top of the building to "dress it up." My office is the bowed out window on the second floor on the right side of the building with the white banner beneath it :-)I hadn't turned the lights on yet when I took these photos - it is sooooo hot here right now, and keeping the lights off helps to keep the office a bit cooler.... This is my seating area where I meet with my clients.... (the same area where the ceiling came tumbling down onto my loveseat a couple of months back when we got that cold, rainy Nor'easter storm)...And my computer area where I do a lot of paperwork and progress note writing... but also a whole lot of blog reading too :-) Maybe I will post pics of my Lawrence, Massachusetts office soon too (where I work Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays...)
Here is another place I am at a lot :-) Do you recognize this place, Karen K.?? This is my LNS, Yankee Cross Stitch in N. Hampton, New Hampshire :-) Speaking of which, I picked up Blackberry Alphabet and a couple of GAST and WDW I need for it, as well as the beads, Wisper and metallics (I subbed one of them with Petite Treasure Braid....) for Fairy Idyll :-)

Q. Have you hand-dyed your own fabric? Why or why not? Would you like to
try to do so?

A. No, I have not hand-dyed my own fabric....yet. I would very much love to though. In fact, today I had a book in my hand at the LNS that explained how to dye fabric - or rather to paint fabric - using Rit Dye. It sure looks easy - and fun. Yes, I will be trying it at some point.

Believe it or not, there are still some blooms opening for the first time in my garden :-)
Daylily: StarstruckDaylily: Siloam Amazing Grace - ooops! That is mislabeled. I just read that this should be a large yellow bloom - got fooled by someone when they sold me this :-) It is still pretty, looks like it is actually Siloam CinderellaDaylily: Butterfly KissesDaylily: Holiday Delight (a better picture...)Daylily: Court Magician

Red Sox 8, Royals 5... but possibly at some cost to us, as Manny Ramirez and Edgar Renteria collided in left field early in the game, knocking both to the ground. Edgar returned for another four innings, but left with sore ribs. Manny left immediately to go to Massachusetts General Hospital - they say he has a contusion on his right chest and on his face... his eye area is pretty beaten up.... hopefully both will be back soon.... meanwhile, Matt Clement, who got beaned off the head a week ago Tuesday, is actually going to pitch tomorrow! Unfortunately, it is a day game and I have to work - I hate those day games - it is not fun having to listen here and there on the radio, especially since AM radio comes in sooooo poorly in my office. Oh well, we will DVR it and I can catch it tomorrow night!

We didn't get out for New DVD Release Tuesday yesterday, but Mike did go today and got us Guess Who, which I am totally looking forward to watching this weekend!!

Stitched on today: Story Time (happy dance is coming very soon) and Petal Fairy (well, as you already know... happy dance)