June 29/10

The amaryllis is almost done. The cross stitching and the backstitching are complete. Now I am finishing up the border which is a couching stitch. The final stitch is one I can not remember and am too lazy to go get the instructions to find out. That last stitch finishes the stamen (or is it the pistil?). Anyhow, it is the little bit that sticks out of the bloom and bees like to land on it for the pollen.

 A closer if somewhat darker look at my couching stitch:

While I do like the final effect, once again I must admit that working with metallic threads does not excite me in the least. The couching stitch does give it a pretty effect but I was in a tangle of needles all of the time despite my best efforts. Maybe it is something that I should not be attempting when I have worked 7 out of 8 days recently. Just maybe.

My garden mostly groweth! The beans and the peas have produced 1 single plant out of all the seeds that I sowed. I should re-seed those rows, but well, you know what they say about good intentions. As it is, I just mowed the lawn after a week and a half so the garden re-seeding has been a little low on the priority list.

In other news, my trip to El Salvador is officially a go! I have a trip code, the flyer is up on the Habitat for Humanity website and now just to get going on the details and recruitment of team members. I can not wait to build again!

June 23/10

So, here is my progress on the amaryllis:

I have finished most of the full and half stitches, but have stopped working on the project because 1. a group of us are going in on a gift certificate for the couple I had thought about giving this to for their wedding and 2. I got way laid by making this ornament:

I am making this for Elsa, a young mom that I met at the Guatemalan orphanage in May. My friend who organized the mission is taking another team in August and when asked, she said that she would make sure that Elsa and Luis get the parcel I am putting together. I have also bought the cutest little booties for Luis that have little hearts on them. There is a strength and a deep sadness about Elsa that makes me want to reach out to her. No matter what happens to her, I want her to know that a lady from Canada cares what happens to her. The ornament is a Joan Elliot stitched over 1 on a 28 count Lugana scrap that I purchased last week at Because You Count in Moncton. Part of the reason that I chose this particular pattern is that I met Elsa at an orphanage called Rosa de Amor so I decided that the rose theme was fitting, plus I wanted Elsa to have something beautiful to call her own.

A little thinking was going on while I was out walking in the heat yesterday. The other night, a friend's neighbour called me a saint for all of the volunteer stuff I do and that really embarrassed me. I do these things because it is my honour and privilege to go to El Salvador and Guatemala and wherever. I am fortunate as a woman and a person to live in a country where I can be free personally, emotionally, politically and financially. Working alongside the people who I meet along the way is very humbling because they live in very challenging circumstances and yet they make the best of it and have such incredible spirit. I gain so much more personally than I give because my heart and my eyes are widened a little more each time.

The planning has begun for my next Habitat trip which is tentatively slated to be in November 2010......