Has it really been this long?

Wow, I know it’s been really busy but I didn’t think it’s been months since I posted last until my friend Adele emailed me and said “where are you?”,  good question!  We were in the midst of  KMEA State competitions (Liann got a 1 – way to go Li), music recitals,  High School Orchestra, invited to several graduation parties, and now Bethel College Music Camp.  Liann’s also playing in WSU’s Summer Symphony Orchestra and the music they are working on is awesome!  So we’re still music busy.  So much for the theory of  a summer break. 

This is a picture of their last HS Orchestra Concert played at the Indian Center.  Liann is the first chair cellist to the conductor’s right.  What a great concert!   The graduating seniors had solos they performed during this concert and we were so proud of them.  Next year will be Liann’s turn as she’s a senior in August.

And then look at this face. . .

How do you not want to spend all your time snuggling with him?  Meet Merlin!  Or sometimes known as Merlin the “monster”.  And this  is all another story in itself. . . I know how I lost a lot of time. . .   His mother, Midnight, was hurt when he and his brother Gandalf (yes pure grey and I call them the Wizard Boys) were only three weeks old, so this was five weeks ago.  Liann came in and said Midnight had some scratches on her belly!  So we went and looked at Midnight and what was “scratches” was actually cuts into her belly and she was in very bad shape.  We rushed her to the vet’s on a Saturday afternoon who said we’d have to leave her over the weekend.  Picked her up that Monday to find she had been lucky to make it, had lots of stitches, and would have to be inside.  The bad news, she couldn’t nurse the babies.  I’d already coaxed Ewok to nurse the boys and felt guilty because she was in the process of weaning Silver, Pippin and Tux.  Both Mom’s had been nursing each other’s kittens off and on and playing nursery duty, so she did ’step up to the plate’ and took care of them.  However she also tired of this rather quickly.  Merlin was the smallest of the two and we adopted him into the house and I took over feeding and taking care of him.  We quickly learned he is quite the little personality!  In the middle of all this, we started to take runs to the vet to neuter seven cats, house cats and “barn” cats!  The girls needing to be inside to get well.  So it’s been the revolving door for the kitties!  But it’s all done, all the boys and girls are fixed.  My Jacqui and Midnight included.  I have four kittens to give away, Merlin is mine!  Two long haired and two short haired.  Here is a pic of Merlin “sleeping” on Gandalf until I showed up with the camera, they are just too cute and so much fun to watch!

 

To quote my friend Monique as I noticed her saying this on her blog just the other day, ”I really have been stitching” !  I did manage to stitch up the Cat Block for the STO block exchange in April.  It’s a Brittercup kitty and stitched up really quickly during one of our monthly stitch in’s.  I had almost finished the entire piece at Marcia’s that evening.

May found me really working on my models and I have several going.  I know I’ve  lost track of time, I also know I haven’t felt too well since the surgery in February and I suddenly realized I was way behind my goals for this year.  During May’s stitch in I started my quaker piece for the STO Quaker Exchange so here’s the WIP of that, which by the way, I also worked on Tuesday during June’s stitch in that I hosted.  It’s one of  Blackbird Design’s March Stockings.  What a great stocking series they have going!  And I can tell you it’s a quick stitch, I’ve only spent two stitch in evenings with the girls to get this far.  I’m stitching it on 30 ct Murano with GAST Sarsaparilla.   Of course I can’t wait for another stitch in, it needs to be done and put together by the end of this month.  I’ll share the finish with you then!

I also stitched up this Stacy Nash Primitives design.  It’s her Early Style Alphabet Pin Cushion but I’ve played with it some and made changes, and still might do something more across the bottom or just let it be and finally frame it.   Of course I started this as my Saturday morning project in September while Liann was rehearsing at Wichita Youth Symphony so it’s been a long WIP for what should have been a quick stitch.   Youth Symphony ended in March and I only finished it last month when I saw it was just a few more stitches.  Ok, maybe more than a few stitches, the urn that I changed and the V and Z that had to be moved to make room for the U.

I have to share a gift my friend Margit sent me.  I love happy mail!  A lovely lavender filled sachet.  Love it!  I cut flowers from my garden today to make this small bouquet, roses, columbine, and lavender, and it just matched perfect with it!  What a sweet surprise!  Thank you Margit! 

Speaking of flowers I did take pictures last week to share of my small gardens.  The bleeding hearts did well this year.

And here are some pics of the columbine.  I love all the colors! 

So you can see the shade garden is happy and doing well.  I have lilacs that I rooted that probably need to be moved as they are getting too big for this flower bed.  And the red roses in front really filled out!  Next Spring we’ll add something more to this spot.

I’ve been baking alot as with each recital it seems my brownies are a big request!  In fact I brought them to two graduation parties as well.  Liann’s German friend, an exchange student this year, came with her mother for dinner end of May before going back to Germany and it was such a lovely visit.  They happened to love Italian food and we all know I really enjoy cooking it so that worked out great.  I baked foccacia, made my homemade meatballs for my spaghetti sauce, Liann made a salad, and I finished the meal off with a pumpkin roll filled with a cream cheese filling.  This past Tuesday I hosted the monthly stitch in and the gals were treated to my meat sauce over shells, homemade bread, and a fresh blueberry cake.  Last night we had a music friend over, our bbq plans washed away with the drizzly day so homemade whole wheat rolls, spaghetti, and chocolate chip shortbread ended up on the menu.  We also had a fun evening of rummy cube!  All in all it’s been a busy and fun week  that will continue with more music events in the next few days. 

I also need to update my Gallery!  I will let you know in the next post what’s been uploaded.  Thank you everyone for sending pictures in of your Midnight Stitching finishes!  I love seeing them and sharing them with everyone!  And thank you for your patience while time slipped away from me.

Enjoy your evening!  I leave you with yet more cat pictures.  I managed to snap Merlin napping and snuck up on JJ on the deck, not an easy feat I might add.  Thanks for stopping by!!