Thank you!

Thank you to all who wished my mom well with her health problems--I am happy to say that she has been recovering and getting some of her strength back. She is currently back at her own house so she can start going through things and donating or selling those things she no longer needs or has room for as she prepares to sell her house and find a more manageable place to live near us.

While things were improving with my mom one of my cats had a rapid decline and died at home in the early hours of the morning last Wednesday. My sweet Maxie was around 16 years old, and we adopted her when she was about 2 so we have 14 years of wonderful memories to take comfort in. She was allowed access to a couple areas of the house that the other cats were not, so she would stand by the door and talk very loudly until we let her in or out of those areas; the house is much too quiet with her gone. Here is my favorite picture of my girl:

I've had a hard time concentrating on much since she passed, so this weekend I decided to put the model away for a couple of days and stitch on something that I love. I had already kitted up Mirabilia's Duchess of Rouen, so I started her Saturday afternoon on a piece of Sugar Maple Fabrics Bewitched opal Lugana. Yesterday I finished her beautiful face, which was brought to life by the back stitching:

And stitched a bit more of her hair last night:

I'll see how progress goes on the model this week, and maybe work more on the duchess next weekend.

I've also been keeping up with Carolyn Manning's daily temperature SAL, though the temps have been going in the wrong direction lately:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, give your critters some extra love and stay healthy out there!