I still have a stitching bug but unfortunately one of my colleagues got a bad diagnosis and is on medical leave so I took over most of her biggest clients. The net effect is I've been working from 8am-10pm M-F plus weekends. This means that I'm usually just stitching one day a week (Sundays) so my 10 hours took a little longer to get to this time around. But I'm still going strong and I'm taking this weekend off plus an extra day Monday for three days of stitching, reading, writing, and I think we're going to go to the beach. I'm also looking forward to going on a long run after I write this post.

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[Image] After:

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Maybe a weekend finish depending on how ambitious I am this weekend? I'm already planning out how I'm going to budget out my stitching after this. I want to finish the Legendary Creatures alphabet and give it to my nephew before he graduates high school (for reference, he's not 1 yet) so I think I'll tackle that next. It's a fun project and gives me lots of little finishes.

Then, after that, I think I'm going to start my first SSMC. There's a chart I've been in love with forever that I keep envisioning in my home, if I ever buy one (for those of you familiar with the housing market in Silicon Valley then you know how potentially unattainable the dream of home ownership is out here). Either way, I feel the need to start it as it reminds me of everything I've ever wanted in my own home. And Lesli is amazing and bought me the whole kit as a gift so I have no excuse! I've found myself transitioning to a more focused stitching style lately. Although I can't do one at a time because I need breaks from a given project, I do find myself wanting to focus more on say, two projects at a time. That way I get the variety I crave while still seeing steady progress. I think that's what I'm going to do with the flapping parrot and the (as of yet secret because I'm trying to keep it a bit of a surprise for H³ and he reads this blog) SSMC project once I finish Legendary Creatures. Two pages of the flapping parrot followed by one page of my SSMC. When I finish one of these projects I'll just replace it with one of the ones I already have on the go.

This is the ideal situation, of course, the reality could end up being much different. Either way, however, this is my intention for now and we'll see how it actually pans out!

Now, however, I'm going to slap on some sunscreen, pull on my sneakers, and go for a run. Happy stitching, everyone!