Bling! and my Mary

I spent some time on the bling-y Christmas ornament this week.  Only one more section to go and I can assemble it.  This finishing technique will be a first for me but it seems similar to biscornu finishing so I'm hoping it isn't too difficult.  I'll be glad when this one is done.  The silver thread is still bothering my eyes and I'm making many small counting errors.  Most of them I've corrected but a few I'm just letting go.  They aren't that important.

Mary Wigham has an update as well.  I worked on the dark bird motif and the empty one in the middle.  I only stitched the border in the middle because I was anxious to see if the third motif would fit.  There are lots of counting differences/errors from the original and I was concerned.    I changed the size (reduced the width) of the dark bird's border just in case.  And happily they all fit nicely.  Woohoo!

I need to decide what to put in the empty spots on the bottom.  Mary has initials on hers but I decided to change the pattern and leave them off.   There's still plenty of time to decide what to do here.  And it's fun to be thinking about it as I stitch.

A couple weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my pups and I realized I didn't have any current ones.  Bad me!  So I took a few pics of my pack on Tuesday and will  now bore you with a few . . . .

 First up are the papillons.  I think Firefly is the most photogenic little doll.  It was because of that face that I adopted her.  How could I resist??  River is a neurotic little dude but loveable none the less.  Both of my paps are 9.5 years.

Next up is my old fellow, Stormy.  He turned 14 on Sept 13th and gets chilly easily at his age.  He's been a pistol all his life and it's difficult watching him slow down.

And finally . . . . the beagles.   Missy Willow is my oldest beag.  She's 11 now and definitely slowing down as well.   When I adopted her, her whole face was brown, now it's all white.  Willow is auntie to the 2 pups, her brother is their daddy.

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Shasta is only 6 but one of the laziest dogs I've ever met -- she was born slow.  I hate to see how much slower she'll get as she ages.  Eating and sleeping are her favorite past times.  Shasta didin't want her picture taken outside so she hid out in her crate chewing a bone.  She's mama to the 2 pups.

And now the pups . . . . Meadow is 3.5 and very tiny in stature.  She's a doll.  Since she wouldn't hold still for me, her picture isn't the best.  She definitely inherited the silvering gene from Willow's side of the family.  Her muzzle is almost entirely white already.

Spider is 2 and definitely trouble with a capital T.  It's a good thing he's so cute!  He has a girly collar with flowers on it because he got one of his front legs caught in his old collar.  The collar looped around his neck and under his armpit.  I have no  idea how that happened but thankfully it happened while I was home.  The old collar had to be cut off. 

You can see in this picture the size difference between Spider and Meadow.  He's always walking over her or she's sliding underneath him.  Neither gets offended and it's funny to watch.

Happiness is a warm pup!