12 Days Finished, Calendar Girl WIP finished, Sampler Wip, Stocking Start, Pool Show, Fun with Instant Pot

Ta Da!  (Now to get inspired to finish finish the ornaments.  In the meantime, they're hanging out in zip lock bag.  Maybe they'll finish themselves?)

I pulled out an almost-finished Calendar Girl and finished it.  Now I have only 2 more to go to finish this series.  Who knows when that will happen?

I almost forgot...the latest model I stitched for Country Cottage Needleworks, Time for Tea, has been released.  It's a small, sweet design that I just may stitch again for myself:

I also put a few stitching in Pink Sparrow Sampler (With Thy Needle and Thread).  The color palette is totally different than what I usually stitch but I like it.

I started DGD's stocking.  It's by Bent Creek and looks so cute on the cover of the leaflet.  I think my procrastinating had a lot to do with the called-for fabric (18 ct.) and stitching it over 2.    After stitching a bit, I have a better idea of the size...and a confirmation that I really don't like stitching over 2 on 18 count (with 3 strands of floss).  Now that I see the size better, I really think it will be fine stitched over 2 on 28 count so I probably will restart it on that.  (I may also finish this one and keep it here for her stocking at Grandma's house so the materials and time I spent on it will not go to waste.)

We and our neighbors have been entertained lately by watching a new house being built on our lake.  The owners also built an infinity pool and (long story) one of the TV pool shows filmed it for one of their episodes.  The episode aired last Monday.  It's a beautiful pool and it was interesting seeing the cameras' views of the construction but (how do I say this?) the episode wasn't exactly what we observed in describing what happened and even the location.  (We're in a small city about 45 minutes from Houston and they showed some footage of the Houston skyline without explaining that it wasn't our city's skyline.  There were a couple of other discrepancies we noticed too.)  In some of the footage of the lake, you can see our backyard in the distance if you don't blink.   All in all, it was an interesting experience and we and the neighbors are wondering what other entertainment we have in store at the lake now that this is over.

We're going to enjoy these new neighbors.  They're already friends with a couple of our neighbors and seem friendly and fun.

Finally, I've played with my new Instant Pot 3 times so far and we've enjoyed all 3 meals.  I think it meets my goal of being able to widen our summer dinner menus without turning on the stove/oven.  At some point I might try making yogurt and cheesecake in it (like I've seen on Instant Pot groups on FB).

Happy stitching!