Either that dratted opossum is back or there is now something else in that cabinet. I'm leaning toward the something else because I can hear it walking back and forth in there. I barely ever heard Mr. Opossum. I'm afraid to look. Is there a sign or something under my sink that says "Vermin Hotel. Reasonable Rates."??

I managed to catch that pesky little opossum last night. I feel such triumph! Quite a scraggly looking little thing. Can't really tell, but in the second picture he's "playing dead". Quite convincing. Laying in the food was a very nice touch! I dropped him off in the woods a quarter mile or so from my house -- across two canals and a fairly large swath of marshland. Hopefully, he won't be back! Now I get to clean out the cupboards he was in. Ewwwwwww!! Not really looking forward to that!

Is that a provocative title or what? Unfortunately, you can take it literally. I am trying to catch an opossum that is living in my under sink cabinet as described here. It's not working. But I'm hopeful that it might since I don't want to have to rent a trap. So here I wait for the stupid thing to climb into a garbage can!

Here is more background on Rose. Background stitching is one of those things that I just have to love while I'm hating it. It goes so quickly, but I never feel like I accomplish much because when I'm done there isn't really anything to see.

I also started Bent Creek's The Red Thread.


I'm not entirely happy with how it is turning out. I think I made a mistake with the fabric. I choose Silkweaver's Desert Sky. I was expecting it to be a more peachy tan with blue highlights but it's mostly gray with some very faint tan. The GAST slate thread is practically invisible against the fabric and none of the other colors seem as vibrant as the WIPs I've seen. I'm not sure if I should start over or just replace the one color. I don't know why I worry so since I plan to give this as a gift and the recipient won't have a clue what it should have looked like and will certainly love it even if it does seem washed out to me.

Well, I am tired. So, opossum or no opossum, I am going to bed!

I’ve been lax once again. You’d think that I would have found some time during my four day holiday weekend to update my blog. But no. I don’t understand it, but when I get blocks of time like that with no obligations to others I go on a stitching frenzy. And that is exactly what I did.

This update on Taj Mahal is actually from the week before. I finished up the third side of part 3. One more to go and then I can finish up on part 4. It doesn’t seem like a lot of progress, but a bit is better than nothing!

Next up was supposed to be Sea of Roses but I discovered that the new chart I ordered with the background removed was not the same as the chart I had been working from. Ack! So I e-mail HAED about it and decided to move on and start (well, restart actually) Rose Fae . I decided to restart this because I thought I had made an error and used the wrong floss color. It seems I hadn’t, because that weird blue is still there in the leaves. No matter, I like the way things stitch up on the antique white and have pretty much decided to restart almost everything I have on anything else. Another testament to my complete insanity.

When I was finished with that, I decided to go ahead and restart Sea of Roses. I had determined that I had enough fabric to do so and figured more colors can only be better right? I only worked on it a day. Early on I came across a chart error (wrong color) and decided to put it away before I become even more frustrated. I’ll make a decision on whether to continue with the restart or continue trying to remove the background myself when it comes up again. Right now I’m equally torn between the two and figure some distance will help.

Tuesday was the first day of school. I took the day off and got close 1500 or so stitches done on Rose while they were in school. I’m not done with her yet, so a picture will have to wait. And here’s my youngest dressed in her finest and ready to go. She’s very excited to be in fifth grade this year. My son (who deigns to be photographed) is a senior and is gearing up to start applying to college! So there will be “endings” for both of them this year.