Hurricane Season

Happy Sunday!  The climate in central Florida has most definitely turned tropical since the last time I posted.  We have steamy mornings, slippery pavements and regular downpours each afternoon.  Every time I catch the local weather forecast I hold my breath for news of  developing tropical storms off the coast of Africa.  Hurricane season is on its way....

In keeping with this tropical time of year, I do have a finish to show off!  Here's the finale for what originated as "Once Upon An Island", but is now referred to as "The Hemingway Sampler":

This piece wrapped up earlier this morning.  It was an easy, fun project that broke up the monotony of my more ambitious undertakings, particularly Ann Grimshaw.  I especially enjoyed the four little motifs in the corners, each for a different reason.

One of the more charming sites in Key West, is the goats that graze on the sloping sides of the bunkers at the US Naval Base.  They elimiate the need for other types of landscaping maintenance and add a certain Caribbean essence to the scenery  So do the wild chickens that roam the island.  No matter where you are in Key West - atop the lighthouse, strolling the neighborhoods or watching the sunset - you'll always hear them.

No visitor to the Hemingway home leaves without hearing the story of Ernest's love for cats, particularly those with 6 toes.  Sailors believed that 6 toed cats were good luck, so they kept them on their ships and traded for them in port. On a small isolated island, the gene pool for them increased quickly, so most cats in KeyWest now have at least 6 toes.  I had to give them a place of honor in the bottom left corner of the sampler:

It was great fun figuring this cat out because I tried my best to make him look like good old Mo.  See the resemblance?

 

The crown in the bottom right was a part of the original design.  I liked it because it gave the chance to work in a little more of the darker gold color into the border. 

All in all, it was a very fun piece, one I'm glad I took the time to play with.  Now I have 3 finished samplers in my Florida themed  collection!

Oh yes, one last item to share.  Am I the only one who finishes with a chart that looks this bad?

 You'd think a hurricane had blown right through my stitching spot, wouldn't you?  But no, this sadly tattered scrap is the result of stitching on a couch with a very affectionate and rambunctious Molly.  She just assumes that if I'm sitting down, it has to be because she 's ready for some attention. As many times as she trounced on this chart, I'm very lucky to have any of it left at all!

So with the end of August fast approaching, I guess it's time to return to other more serious stitching projects like Ann Grimshaw, Frances Eden and Hannah Pepper.  I would dearly love to have all 3 of those old ladies safely in retirement by year's end, but it will take some other act of God to make that happen.

 Anyway, thanks for stopping in and as always, I love to know what you're thinking! 

Dog Days

Good morning everyone, and welcome to August, the dog days of summer.  In keeping with this theme, I thought I'd start off by sharing this short video of my dogs - Ruby and Molly - and how they've been spending their summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve5fhSnHp_0&feature=player_embedded

I love this clip, because it really shows what herding dongs do - they herd other animals.  Unfortunately since the girls don't have any sheep of their own to keep together, they spend a lot of time herding each other!

The crazy pace this summer hasn't let up one bit since my last post, so stitching time has been rather hard to come by.  However, I have have managed to reproduce a satisfactory replica of the Hemingway home in Key West into "Once Upon an Island" and I'm really quite tickled with the result.  If you saw my previous post, you'll remember that this was the actual home......

And this is what I came up with for the sampler:

 

Not an exact replica, but that's not really what I was going for anyway.  Here's the entire piece as of this morning.  I'm still debating about what to put in the four corner boxes and a suitable quote for under the scene.  In the meantime though, I'm buying some time by getting the border in place.  Hopefully once it's done I'll have figured ot the rest of it!

 

Jim and I had the rare opportunity to take a boat cruise around the southern point of Egmont Key with the local Audubon Society a few weeks ago.  This part of the island is a federal bird sanctuary, so visitors are almost always prohibited access to it.   July is the height of nesting season for many of the sea birds, including laughing gulls, brown pelicans, sandwich terns and American oystercatchers, all of which find the beaches on Egmont Key the perfect spot for raising their chicks....

 

and doing what seabirds do...

 

No visit to Egmont is complete without appreciating the lighthouse.  The boat tour around the nesting grounds was cut a bit short by a sudden rain squall, but the rainbow it produced was worth the change of plans.  Start to finish, it was quite a spectacle!

One of the perks of my job is that I do occasionally have the chance for some travel.  Because if this, I spent last week in Little Rock and had the chance to spend some time with my sister Judy and her wonderful family.  Turns out, Judy is a budding jewelry designer, with quite the eye for beaded color and style.   Lunch at the Starving Artist Cafe lead to a stop at a nearby favorite bead shop, where we picked up the beads and supplies for this project.

 

It was great to have the time with her and to come back with such a special token.  Love you, Judy!

So that should bring me about up to the present time, though fast as it's passing, I'm probably alredy behind again.  As always, I love your comments, and am so glad you spend a few moments of your dog days here!