The Little Bee Eater Finished, and Some News

Over the long Memorial Day weekend (I had four days off), I was able to get in some serious stitching time. When last I left the Little Bee Eater, the head and beak weren't even touched. This weekend I did these, and am amazed at how lifelike the eye looks. Trish Burr is such a fantastic designer.

And here he is, all completed. The claws are bullions with some straight stitches at the tips. I love how alive he looks, and if you look at the original post, you'll see a photo of a Bee Eater I downloaded from Wikipedia. I also can't believe that I started this almost a year ago, in early June 2012. The entire embroidery is only 2 1/2 inches high by 3 inches wide, so it's pretty little.

This is a typical Trish Burr embroidery. Great illustrations and instruction, so well written that even someone with very rudimentary skills can do a good job on it. It does take an amazingly large number of colors, but that's needle painting. There is a lot of subtle shading, and that takes quite a few skeins of floss. This particular kit required 28 different colors.

And so the news: Some of you will remember that I have mentioned in the past that I have a very long commute to work, three hours roundtrip. I've finally decided to retire, effective this Friday, and end my affair with the freeway. I am so thrilled I feel as though I'm floating through life. I never envisioned I would be so happy about retiring. Well, my first project will be starting on flower girl dresses for my niece's wedding at the end of June. It's only two dresses, a size 5 and a 2T, so they shouldn't take too long.  There is a long list of other things to do, from exercising more to unfinished embroidery projects to unearthing my inner housewife. And I certainly expect to do a lot more blogging. I did make a start on sewing clothes for myself, so expect to see some posts on that subject.

Only three more days to go...