Hanging In There

This is a picture of the very first counted cross stitch project I ever did. I made it for my Mom for Mother's Day 1995. And I had so much trouble with it, having had to take out nearly as many stitches as I put in, some sections three and four times before I got the count right, I swore it would be my last counted cross stitch.

Well it is the last completed one. So far. I've got two large ones in progress since 2000. One of a mother dolphin swimming under water with her baby. The other of an Orca breaching in moonlight. Both are larger than a manuscript page. Both have more stitches to the inch than the Raccoon. Both are from Christian Riese Lassen paintings. I was (and am) so enamored of Lassen's art that I just had to have them and the fading memory of my struggles with this small project could not compete with that.

I'm trying to take the message on this one to heart today: Hang in there. Along with the lesson learned by all the needlework projects I have worked on: Every project big or small is accomplished one stitch at a time.

The last couple of days I've been stiff and sore from neck to hip from having banged my right shoulder into the driver's side mirror on an SUV in the mall parking lot on Sunday. The jarring while in mid stride whip lashed my neck and acted upon the muscles of my ribcage, abdomen and lower back like a taffy pulling machine. It was my first outing from this house since the ER visit January 6th.

Remind me again why I am staying here at my Mom's?

Oh, yeah. To help in her post surgery and post stroke aftercare.

Do you hear that 'evil laughter' soundtrack playing in the back ground?