January Mystery & Crazy Flowers

I finished all the cross stitching on the January Mystery SAL.  Now I have the backstitching to do.  I couldn't decide on an third color for the shared head area.  Instead of letting this piece sit around while I came to a decision, I did this:

Looks kinda cool.

Last weekend I wanted to stitch on Flower Power but just wasn't up to it.  Now that I'm feeling better, I picked it up and set needle and thread to it:

This is going to be so pretty when it's finished.  I enjoyed stitching it so much I may spend most of the week working on it.  I love the colors I chose and though it looks complicated to stitch, it really isn't.  Each band is composed of several different patterns interwoven to give the final lacy pattern.  I do one pattern at a time.  In the pic you can see the second band's first layer completed.  It's pretty as is but with each layer it becomes more ornate.  Once the first layer is down, the remaining layers don't involve much counting.  The repetition is actually kind of relaxing.  I suspect this will be my first large crazy finish.

Sunday, the dogs and I were at a teacup agility trial.  I only entered Stormy and River -- we weren't successful but had a good time.  Meadow got to play with her common brother (they are from a different litter but the same parents).  She had a blast.  Firefly got to sit in my lap and visit with her only surviving child, Pheonix.  Shasta is in season and almost ready to breed but just wasn't 'in the mood' yet.  She got to take a nice flirty walk with her paramore, Ruddy (maybe tonight will be the night??) -- get him all wound up and snarl when he tried to get to first base.  And last, but not least, poor Willow didn't get much attention or have much fun yesterday.  Tonight she has agility class -- hopefully that will make up for it.

Have a happy stitchin' week.