Last of July stitching and TUSAL

I really can hardly believe that this is the end of July already. I know I have said it before, but time is really speeding up. The one way I can recognize that we are in the dog days of summer is by looking at the thermometer - this has been a record breaking hot summer for our area of the country, and it appears in quite a few other places as well. I hope where ever you are reading my blog from that you are able to keep cool however you can. I know that my gardens all look like jungles, but with my COPD, I can't get out there to do anything - bummers. To go along with my complaining about the heat, I chose to take my Second July TUSAL picture in front of the thermometer so that I will remember that this is the July/August shot!

I did get one more little red, white and blue ornament done for my All Year Long Tree. This is a old SanMan Original chart that was probably a freebie from her site. I did it on 16ct white aida with my choice of the DMC red, white and blue. It is backed with the fabric that it is laying on, and once again, I used the cute ribbon.

I had a little excitement this week - not of the good kind. Thursday morning I woke up to find that incision of the surgery I had June 23rd opened up again. So off to the emergency room did my daughter, Lisa, take me. They said that since my skin is old and damaged by the radiation treatments, it is not surprising that this happened. They stapled me up again, and I go see the surgeon that did the work on Monday. The ER doctor thought that I may end up having to have a skin graft to insure that it won't open up again. Bummers.

On to brighter, happier thoughts - I have started planning & stitching for the MB Retreat in October. At the retreat there is an Autumn, a Halloween and a Christmas Ornament exchange. There is also a "stitched piece" exchange as well. I have picked and started stitching my larger Halloween piece and a couple of little Autumn and Halloween ornaments to stitch. I have the new Cross Stitched Christmas book that has a couple of nice ornaments I may stitch as well as some other charts I am trying to decide between. In the exchange, if you bring one piece, you get one piece but if you bring more, you get more. I think I have settled on my stitched piece project, but I am missing a couple of the flosses, so I had better contact Amy at Down Sunshine Lane here real soon. I guess many of you are thinking I am starting this pretty early, but I am a pretty slow stitcher so I need to get going on this.

I sent Debbie of SoCaDebbie out the Traveling Stash box, so if you are interested in joining the fun go to her blog. I am sorry, I don't know how to do links. I think while I am at MB I'll ask some of the other girls how it is done - better put that on my list - LOL!!

Thank you all once again for visiting my blog and especially for leaving comments. It is really fun to read what you all have to say. So until next time, have a happy, healthy, stitchy time!