An old project complete

I've been going through my craft supplies, some that have been with me for probably 40 years, so I'm purging and organizing.  Have found so many unfinished kits and projects that I don't even remember when/where I bought them or why I started them in the first place.  It's aggravating when I'm not able to find the pattern I was working on and there's likely some I won't ever finish at all, but this one was a kit and very easy to finish up.  

Since some of the threads got lost along the way, I just pulled from my stash.  And then came across this card with an oval opening that it fit in quite nicely.  I think the card might have been meant for something Christmasy but I'm using what I've got.  

Believe me when I say I have no need to buy any craft supplies for a very long time with all that I am uncovering of late.  :)

Have tried all morning but I'm currently unable to leave comments on blogs for some reason.    A black box pops up that says publishing but it just sits like that and nothing is going through.  Anyone else having a problem?

Birds on the Collar

We hadn't heard a warning siren since around the third week of July, but at 1:15 a.m. this morning it went off.  For some reason, the gov't changed the way it sounds without warning anyone and I swear it was more ominous than anything happening around us.  I read comments under the post of a news outlet here and seems everyone was saying the same thing.  Of course, my husband wouldn't know because he slept through it. 

In May I posted about an old striped shirt I was adding cross-stitch to ... 

I started with the pocket ... and since then, have added two small birds to the collar.

There's no pocket on the right side of the shirt so I might add a bigger motif there but that's still to be determined.

(Both motifs are from the digital library of Palestinian embroidery found at tirazain.com.)

A Bookmark and Books Read

 In May when the weather was still somewhat bearable for being outdoors, I sat at the park and stitched a repeating motif called Tiles of Bethlehem (pattern is from the digitial archive of Palestinian embroidery at tirazain.com).

The stitching was complete but it was only last month that I finally turned it into a bookmark by attaching a felt back with blanket stitching.

July was not a good month as is reflected in my lack of time and focus for reading.

However, June and August were a different story with 10 books read in both months.

Some are books I've had for years, some were given to me by my friend, Susanna, and some were free e-books.

In the past 8 months, I've read a total of 48 books which is pretty good, I think.

Do you like to read?