October 1/17

Mother Nature has been a bit bipolar recently. We had a heatwave last week where temperatures were well into the 30C territory and I went swimming in an outdoor pool this past Tuesday. By Friday, the temperatures were cool enough that I pulled out my winter coat to sit around the fire on both Friday and Saturday night. I did not need a coat this afternoon to sit out and work on my pallet tree as the temps were in the low teens, but I did start to get cramped up and stopped painting the red parts because I was getting chilled. I need to do some more work to fill out the ribbons so that they do not look so stringy and to fill out a few spots to make it all more balanced. Overall, I am pleased with how it is turning out.

Here is the last of the CADPAT bibs that I finished stitching tonight. This bib is the last one in my stash with the terry cloth backing so I am undecided about whether I will stitch any more of them. A military friend has a baby due in December so one of the bibs will go out in the mail in a month or so as they are now posted on the West Coast.

My ort jar is not filling up very quickly. The arrival of cooler evenings means that the jar will fill up much more quickly as I stitch away while winter does its thing outside.

Sept 25/17

So, we are in a bit of a heatwave these days so stitching is not really on my mind because the house is so hot and I keep getting headaches as I find it almost impossible to keep up an adequate water and salt intake. That being said, I did use the heat to my advantage yesterday to quickly dry the first couple layers of paint on a pallet cut into the shape of a tree.

The white is an indoor/outdoor primer paint that I had for some touch up jobs at my old house and the blue is a chalk paint that I bought for a project that is still on the to-do list. To finish the painting part, I plan to use red enamel paint, once used for my front door, to paint a filigree type ribbon all over. I need to both draw it on and do some practise painting before I put red paint on this piece. Then, I am thinking that a string of white lights will nicely light it up when I put it out for a Christmas display on the lawn.