June Smalls

I lost my stitching mojo for the first part of June. By the time I felt like stitching again there wasn't much time left in the month for the start of a new project. Instead I dug out a Christmas ornament that I had started late last year but never finished.

This is an M Designs tree that I've stitched for a friend.

When I'm stitching one of these trees on an opalescent fabric I don't see the need to add the beads. The fabric itself lends that extra bling. However this fabric had no opalescence so I chose to add them. I guess I wasn't looking at the pattern all that closely and I didn't realize just how many beads there were until I got started. I think it could have done without quite as many but I was already halfway through the beading when I clued in! Finding just the right colour was challenging too because I wanted a contrast to the floss.

The final finishing of the ornament will take place next week. Rain is forecast which will keep me indoors and this will be the perfect project to pass some time. 

Summer here has been delayed because of our cool, wet spring. The heat arrived last week and everything is blooming all at once. I snapped a few pics of the garden flowers while I was out watering the other night.

This is the latest that my irises and peonies have ever bloomed. Our annual visitors, the waxwings, also haven't arrived yet because the berries on our neighbour's tree haven't ripened yet. Most years the tree is already picked clean of the berries and the waxwings are on their way. For awhile there this spring I honestly thought we might not see the warm weather. When it did arrive the humidity and storms arrived right alongside it.

I'll leave you with a pic of Clarisse and me enjoying some time together in the gazebo. She likes to be as close to me as possible, lol!