In my head

I'm feeling a little better each day. The ear is still blocked / clogged. It's so weird.  I can kind of hear, but it's like having an earplug in and I can hear myself really loudly. Bruce keeps telling me I'm speaking quietly, and I told him, it's because in my head it sounds loud! I hate the sound of my own voice, and when it's amplified in my head and a nasally because of this dumb infection.....  Well, the good thing is the antibiotics are going in and nasty stuff is going out. I'm taking this annoyance philosophically,  that I need to listen better. Not just to people, but to life and myself (even if I don't like the sound of my own voice!). 

I picked up the "Dalmatian Hug" cross stitch from the framer last week, but wasn't feeling up to taking pictures. Some stuff is hard to photograph. Even with my new fancy camera. Another lesson learned or should I say accepted, is that just because I have a wonderful new camera, doesn't mean I take any better pictures... Ha!  I am just all about self awareness today, aren't I? 

 

It's super hard to stage an object to photograph in my house. It seems nearly every square inch is already occupied. I do have plenty of wall space in my living room, but there isn't anything hung there already, and I didn't want to put a random nail in the wall, just to get a picture. The wall space in the living room is reserved for my mermaids. I have started cross stitching a series of them by Mirabilia. I have 3 of them completed, but not framed. You see, I will spend money to finish things for other people, or to donate to the rescue, as is the case with "Dalmatian Hug", but I can't seem to afford to do it for myself.  I have decided that this year, as a gift to myself, I am going to get them framed. One at a time, when I can afford to. Framing is expensive. I do have to say that the ladies that I take my stuff to are the best. For years the only issue I had was Dalmatian hair (Dals shed. A lot.) I had two purebred angels and that hair always seemed to find it's way into all of my projects. I'm pretty good and patient at using the lint roller and tweezers to get the hair out, but there would always be some left in there. Pam, at the Frame Station and Gallery, must be a magician, because she always gets it all out. The last five years has presented even more hair. Cat hair. I think it's worse than the Dal hair. There's more of it (duh, I have seven cats!) and it's so fine, and long that it gets woven in more. Actually, there's hardly and Dal hair at all, since Diamond is a mix and doesn't seem to shed much.

 I've gotten off track (again). I was saying that framing was expensive. I don't mind paying my favorite shop to do it though, if I can. They do a fantastic job, and I've never been displeased with anything they've done. I've thought about taking something to Joann's or Michael's, since they always have great sounding coupons for framing, but then I think about all the time I spent (nearly 300 hours on one piece) and especially, when they are gifts, I'm not going to risk having some 17 year old kid ruin it during his training. Besides, I try to support the small businesses in the area when I can.  I'll dig up the photos of the mermaids to post.  I think I'm going to try and figure out how to make a "Work in Progress" page on here.  I'm still learning!