Stuff has been accomplished... just not nearly enough. (or, What Was I Thinking)

Hi all -- happy Year of the Sheep, though by The World's Most Important Calendar, that of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, it is the Year of the Spinning Mouse.   All hail the Spinning Mouse.

I know this will come as a shock to you, but, honest and true, I have been stitching.  Just not fast enough to suit me and my GIANT list of things to do.

Last night I unearthed my Carriage House "A Mind Independent and Free" last night.  It's over-one in Vicky Clayton silks, Belle Soies, and some Thread Gatherers on some evenweave--- why, yes, it has been a long time since I started it, how could you tell?

Want to know why I unearthed Independent and Free?  Well it is/was a confluence of two Ruth-isms. 1.   I downloaded my sidebar WIP and UFO lists into Word to make a table and made the mistake of letting Word number the entries.  OMG, I have 59 things started!   And that's not even counting ones I probably forgot to put on the dang sidebar.  Fifty-nine!!!!!!   Sheesh.  That shock caused me to really look at the lists and remind myself of how cool I thought all of those 59 items were and how much I wanted to get back to work on them.
2.  I saw how short my WIP list was (defined as anything worked on in the last two months) and how few cross stitch pieces were on there. This caused me to think especially fondly of all the xs pieces on the UFO list.
#1 + #2 = I unearthed Independent and Free.   One last confession -- it got unearthed because it was the first of the UFO xs pieces I could find in the piles of Chez Hovel.   I am figuratively hanging my head in shame for my lack of order.

I also found these beauties near the to of the piles this week and got them out for some stitching time.

There's the Susan Roberts engineer nutcracker who got a cap and his train completed this week:

And Mrs come out to play.  I sincerely hope to have her done for Christmas this year.  Which means she needs to be done in September.  Dear Lord I just realized I'm going to need to get her her own suitcase to haul her to Christmas!   Why did this seem like such a great idea?????

It is easier to see her progress from the back -- this week her feet got finished as did the vertical black lines on her "skirt."

I made anti-progress on my By the Bay Serenity Sampler because the rose colors I picked did not work in the least when I got them stitched in.  The pink flosses in the picture below are what is called for, but I wanted red roses like the ones that grew over my Grandma's garage.  My new selection are the floss and the Splendors--

And there they are in.  I think they work much better.  Opinions?

I leave you with something that I am currently obsessed with -- this pigeon mural that is along my bus route in to work.  Before Christmas he appeared thusly:

Mid January he started morphing --

 And currently he looks like this --

What can I say -- growing up with a backyard full of pigeon coops with largely homing pigeons in residence makes me quite fond of the little blighters.  And this guy is just a homing pigeon extraordinaire!

Once again -- go forth and enjoy this second month of The Year of the Spinning Mouse!  Reading a Pratchett can help improve your day/week/month/year immensely.

Take care and happy stitching!

P.S.  For the record, I have refrained from buying that crow on a pumpkin canvas thus far.  Yes, I know, it is early days.  I have, however, visited the 80% bin again.  I would show you how bad I was, but the pics from that keep insisting on rotating sideways........ possibly a hint to me to stop shopping?????