We're Not Used to this Heat and Humidity

 ....and it is taking a toll on us. We more or less live in the family room or out on the lower shady patio, as the parts needed for the heat pump to produce air conditioning "are not available right now". I guess that they will magically show up this fall, when it really isn't that hot and humid any more, unless it takes until after the winter, when we depend upon said heat pump. 

That said, it is taking more time than I expected to get the little rugs going to the point where I can take them on vacation next week, but here is a progress report:

The blue and white Chinese rug is ready for the cream-coloured background work, then the hems and the fringing on the ends. It's the most advanced rug at this point. (It just printed out lengthwise, and by madly pushing keys it suddenly became horizontal again - why and how?)

And I can't duplicate the previous operation, as this one just turned itself vertically, from a horizontal position. This is a Colonial-era hooked rug design, the perimeter is complete except for the hemming, but the blocks need filling in.

I give up! This is the problem rug right now, the Bokhara design is absolutely gorgeous, but in the heat and with a hot cat on my lap I have to put it aside for a while! I'm doing more pulling out than actually embroidering. The poor cat doesn't realise that she is only adding to her humans' discomfort.

My mini friend Marilyn passed on to me three bankers' boxes of miniaturist magazines on Monday; she is downsizing for an upcoming house move. And I'm finding many things I'd really like to try my hand at in the future, but really need to finish some of the other semi-complete projects going on at the moment. As always, supply issues and fear-of-electrification are the main culprits for my not being able to get into finishing them. The new things I'd like to try are all really perfect for some of the many UFO's I have in my workroom right now....

There will be a number of duplicate publications in the boxes of magazines, for which I'll try to find homes. It's too bad that postage costs are so horrendous, otherwise I could send them to people who've just discovered minis and would enjoy a helping hand.

I'm off to the seaside for a few days, and hope that it will be considerably cooler there than it is here.

I Can Change My Mind After All

So, I really haven't been all that happy with the way these leaves looked on my grape vine, and have just ignored it for now, but I would very much like to finish this vignette. As a step towards this, I roamed my garden and found some wild grape vines at the bottom of the property, and I picked one of the leaves.

The grape leaves definitely look more like maple leaves rather than the vine-looking leaves I cut for this vine (except for the tiniest ones, which are fig leaves!) Therefore, I will now carefully pick off all the leaves heretofore applied to the vine trunk, and replace them with maple leaves in a variety of sizes. And I hope I'll like those better, and feel like finishing the vignette sooner rather than later.

Most of the activities I engage in outside of my home are currently in hiatus for the summer, and will start up again after Labour Day, in September. And I will be away for a few days later this month, as well. But I am still working away on the rugs, with the blue and white Chinese rug ready for the background stitching, another rug having the diagonal chequers laid in, and a third one ready to be put onto canvas. These I can take with me while I'm away, to keep my hands busy. With 3 days "off" from those other activities, I hope to do the denuding of the tree this week, and begin the process of cutting and shaping new leaves.

It was a nice day today, and I spent much of it knitting on my lower patio, where we recently installed a new table and chairs; I hope to spend more time working on my hobbies out there on nice days. As the patio is on the north side of our house, much of the day it is in shade, perfect for my skin type - I tend to resemble boiled lobsters after too much unprotected time in the sun....