Save the Forest

For a few weeks now I've noticed a lot of noise far back behind our house. Mostly in the mornings. At the crack of dawn really. I wondered what it ways but didn't give it too much thought. That is until I saw some trucks way back behind our part of the forest. Mike went back their to see what they were doing. Turns out they're cutting down a portion of the forest to build more houses. Why oh why are they doing that?! I love this forest and their are more than enough houses for sale around here without building more. I'll never understand that. Thankfully this part of the forest is mine so they won't be cutting it down. The forest did go really far back and the kids loved going on little hikes through it. Not now. It's been cut down considerably. Not a good time to build houses, IMO.



Joshua started flag football lessons today and so far really likes it. It was really hot here today though so he didn't look so good when they finished. It was only 90 but the heat index was 100. He seemed to be oblivious to it though. He was having too much fun. Someone forgot to tell a couple of the kids that we're not playing tackle football.





















I finished stitching that autumn piece I was telling you about today! This one took a lot longer than I thought it would! I really love it though and hope to go frame shopping next week. I'll probably have to order one but I think I'll do the framing myself. I think it turned out really great and am looking forward to getting it up on the wall. I've done so much stitching for others lately, it was really nice to squeeze in something for me. Perfect timing to because I was given another model to stitch yesterday. In all it's glory, here's my Prairie Schooler Autumn Leaves piece stitched on 32 ct. Lambswool linen.



I think I know what one of my next seasonal pieces for me will be. A while back on a blog I saw where some girls were stitching ornaments from the Prairie Schooler's Twelve Days of Christmas chart and they were attaching them to a grapevine wreath. I love the idea of it and have only seen 1 picture of one that was half finished. This book is out of print and has been for a while. Lucky for me I found it back in May at In Stitches when Laura and I went to Mt. Vernon for a needlework exhibition. I do believe I'm going to see about making one of those wreaths for myself. I just have some other commitments and gifts to take care of first. I'm feeling very productive lately :).



Can you believe how much gas has gone up because of Ike?! I was really hoping to head up to Arlington to see the Pentagon Memorial until I saw that gas went up about .50 cents a gallon. I'll wait till it goes back down a bit. I watched the dedication of it on TV on the 11th. Something about someone playing bagpipes just does me in. I wasn't too teary eyed until that guy started playing them. It was a really nice dedication.



I'm off....the oldest was falling asleep down here, but woke up long enough to muffle out that her throat hurts and she needs motrin *sigh*.