Lighthouses, cone of shame and a cross stitched gift

Hello Stitching Friends❗

What a crazy week this is turning out to be! I had plans to write my weekly post about Spring Into Summer New Start Binge on Monday or Tuesday the latest, but suddenly lots of things happened at once and this is the first chance I've had to sit down with my computer and show you what has happened stitching-wise since last week.

One of the things that happened this week is that my poor beagle suddenly got some kind of  nasty wart-thing on his tail, which he then managed to burst😲, which resulted in a bit of a mess... Since then I've kept his tail under close observation with lots of wound cleaning and he's had to wear the dreaded cone of shame, poor thing😟.

Thankfully the tail is looking a little bit better now, and he's feeling better himself, but he still has to wear the cone so I can make sure that he doesn't lick the wound yet. But I'm feeling hopeful that maybe I don't have to take him to the vet this time. I've had far too many expensive trips to the vet with this boy throughout the years😩.

Anyway, moving on to stitchy matters, the fact is that once again there hasn't been too much stitching going on that I can show you. I have worked on some cross stitched gifts for the future, and I have also done some knitting. However, on Sunday I started a new project as part of the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, which is hosted by the lovely TIFF and RACHEL.

This time I picked a lovely lighthouse design by Cheryl McKinnon from Cross Stitch Crazy latest June issue. I'm planning to give it to my boat-loving father for Xmas.

My start this week is the picture on the top shelf.

 But I also have some dark blue aida fabric in my stash so I'm thinking that maybe I can stitch another one out of the four featured in the magazine with a dark background as a second gift for dad... As always I have so many plans😉. Knowing myself I think I'd better focus on finishing the first lighthouse picture😜.

Anyway, this is where I'm at. I love working on this one, but as usual I don't have all the threads required😒. I'm still hoping though that once I've added the colours I DO have, I may be able to find matching threads amongst the remaining colours in my stash. It helps that the picture is stitched in contrasting blocks of colours so hopefully I can be a bit flexible with the design🤞.
I must admit to becoming quite frustrated with my decreasing thread stash; I definitely need to order some more DMC threads as soon as I can afford it!

Finally I have a PROPER finish to show you... YAAAYYY!!!
I don't know if you remember the flower I stitched last week as part of the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, but here it is once again...

I decided to turn it into a little keepsake for my friend's mother Anita who's past 90 and have various health issues. She's a lovely kind lady who has spoiled my dogs throughout the years. And since I wasn't able to give it to her in person, here is the picture proof that she received my little gift!

That cheeky smile goes straight into my heart💝! Hope you enjoy your little stitched gift, Anita!

That's it for now, and now I'm going to ponder which project is going to be my final start in the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge...🤔!

Happy Stitching Everyone💓.

Annie