Dear friends and blogs that make me smile

Dearest Kathryn and Chiasmata have bestowed upon me a

Aww shucks. Thank you, Kathryn and Chiasmata. I'm honored. I don't know how one could go about making the day of an adventurous traveler like our Kathryn or the inveterate Stitchologist (Chiasmata) and her critter stitching.

Part of the deal with the Make-my-day award is you are supposed to nominate the 10 folks who make yours. Now I'm sure you understand my problem. More than 10 bloggers make my day. Ohhhh the consternation. Frankly, I'd like to thank absolutely everyone stitching on the net because your stories of struggles, UFO lists, stash reports, and pictures make stitching all the more fun for me. Especially the UFO lists that are longer than mine!
Just off the cuff, places in blogland that make me happy include (but are certainly not limited to!!!):
Kathryn's Threads of Desire
Chiasmata's Stitchologist
Barbara's Mainely Stitching
Cheryl's Clydesdale Stitching
Sonda's Who Has Time to Stitch?
Chris' Stitching and Strumming
Jennifer's Sweet Pea Stitching
Michele's Just Another Stitching Blog
Amy's Amy Stitches
Janaina's The Stitcher in the Green Bikini
SolStitches' A Sampler of Stitches
Dani's Black Belt Stitching Wizard
MaryKathryn's The Happy Stitcher
Sharon's Cross Stitch Obsession
Anna's Stitch Bitch
Leena's Lennun Tekleet
Karen's Stitching and Sharing
Carol's The Linen Stitcher
Ok, yeah, that's more than 10, but I'm only stopping because my copy and paste finger is tired. There are so many folks on the web making me happy daily. Thank you to you all very, very much.

I also can give you some updates ... at least such that I can put together in my allergy-induced haze. You see my office "friends" shared with me the 24-hour flu they've been passing around so I was home sick Tuesday and Wednesday. I went back to the office Thursday just in time for a wind storm to pick up and blow noxious pollen from God knows where right into my face. Sigh. Or should I say, wheeze, hack, wheeze. I've gone through 2/3rds of a box of lotioned kleenix and a gallon of apple juice (did I ever mention I HATE apple juice? Well I do. Adamantly.). Still I wheeze. Maybe in a week or three I'll get a night's sleep and be able to talk and not hack constantly.

Ok, back to the updates. In my two days of lounging in a sick bed I accomplished a little bit on my Vierlanden.

Thank you to all of you have goosed me into getting it back out again!

I've re-photoed the Tish needlepoint I finished the week before last--

I'm all smiles because with the completion of this canvas in 2008 I have officially doubled my needlepoint output from 2007. Ok, so 2007 was a sucky needlepoint year.

On the train to mom's Friday I finished a February ornie for the Bride's Tree SAL:

This was what I had to start because I needed to stitch in red and silver -- It's a Vikki Clayton grey silk on Victorian Christmas Red lugana.

Here's a pair of long-ago finishes that I got shots of while visiting my sister's office over Christmas:



And one last pic to go back to work on. Mom's violet bed is going great guns --



By the way, check out how cool your mail would be if you were on the LEGO company's Christmas card list --


I mean, how cool is this? I'm trying to score a slot on the list, but my chances are outside at best.

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Quote of the moment (I'm watching Nero Wolfe DVDs):
With anchoivies, there is no common ground.
Nero Wolfe -- The Death of a Doxy -- Rex Stout

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Recently finished: Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime. Fine. Not greatly memorable. Possibly only really fun if you are well-versed in the pantheon of British and American detective fiction from the early 20th Century.