Wow!... has it been two weeks already?

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post. We've been so busy around here between work and other commitments and I feel like we're only touching down at home briefly anymore. Poor Clarisse, she's been left on her own too much and when we do land in at home she gets so excited . It's just like a kid who's trying to get your attention, getting into everything! I have a lovely arrangement of silk cherry blossoms and pussy willows in my entrance. Well it seems she's taken a shine to them and each day when I arrive home I find little silk cherry blossoms all over the house. Pretty soon she'll have the arrangement stripped clean!

Unfortunately I don't have too much to report in the way of stitching. The only stitching I've done lately was with my Tuesday night SAL group. There were at least 15 of us out this past week and it was so much fun to hear what everyone had been up to and to see their latest stitching accomplishments. I really needed that break this week. Thanks ladies for a great evening! I spent my time working on my Spring Lace. I've had so many compliments on this piece. Everyone seems to be fond of the colour of the floss. I'd been feeling a loss without Cirque to work on and Spring Lace is filling the hole nicely. Sorry the picture quality isn't all that great. My camera battery is getting low and when that happens the pictures tend to look a little unfocused. I took this piece with me to my DH's concert last night and while they were rehearsing before the concert I sat and put in a few stitches. However, not long after I'd picked it up, I found that the frogs had paid a visit and I ended up tearing out the section on the bottom left. I'd started the whole thing one row down from where I should have been and of course it didn't match up with the upside down heart in the bottom center. That's what I get for stitching when I'm tired!

Renovations around here won't get started until after Bob's concerts are finished. At that point he will be finished with all his choirs for the summer and will have a lot more time to devote to our upcoming projects. I'll also be finished with our lab accreditation which takes place this coming week. I had no idea how much work was involved in preparing for this. I've put in several hours of overtime trying to get everything completed in time. By the time I get home from work I'm just too exhausted to tackle anything thing else. My birthday is coming up this Monday and when my DH asked if I wanted to celebrate this weekend I told him no. Too stressed and too tired. I'll celebrate when it's all over. The only bonus in all of this is that I got a promotion to a Senior Technologist.

Rebecca sent me an email this week to see if there was any interest in getting together for a SAL at her place. I gave her some dates but indicated that I could only go for the day rather than the whole weekend. Since Rebecca lives a fair distance from my place she asked Dani if she would host instead. Dani's place is a little closer and it makes things a lot easier when I can only go for the day. We really wanted this to work because we haven't been together for a SAL for quite some time. So next weekend is the date we've chosen. I think there are a few of us going and I can hardly wait! I've needed an outlet for all my extra stress lately and this will certainly fit the bill. It also marks the start of a much needed week of vacation.

I've really missed my time spent visiting all of my blogging friends. I apologize for not having dropped by lately and I hope to catch up with all of you very soon! There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day lately.I'll leave you with a picture of the latest visitor to my bird feeder. He's a red-breasted Nuthatch. I've seen several of these in the neighbourhood but this is the firt time that one has elected to drop by our place. I love how they hang upside down! Have a great week everyone and I hope to be in touch again sooner rather than later.