A huge shriek echoed round my garden yesterday.

We've been away and as a result the lawn was a lush green meadow. So out comes the lawn mower and I'm part of the way through when something is kicked up by the mower blades. Half a frog.

You could use my shriek to cut glass.

Following was the sight of me trying to use a spatula to flip the remains into the undergrowth while remaining at arm's length. Having got closer than I would like, I am reasonably certain that the frog was already dead (for some time) when it met the mower. Possible culprits being the next-door neighbours' cat or seagulls.

I'm hoping that this is symbol that I won't make any more major stitching mistakes for a while because I have another, yes another!, major mistake in Holland that needs to be frogged. Sigh. Plugging away a Celtic for a bit instead - this part never ends.

It's been a time of frogging. Aside from Celtic, I've had major frog sessions on 3 other WiPs. Everything is finally frogged. But it left me feeling a bit sick of everything craft related. I finally feel like I'm getting my stitching mojo back but I've also had patches of not feeling too well which I'm blaming on trying to give blood at work for medical research. They only wanted 40ml and I did warn them about the fainting episode when I originally tried to give blood when I was 19 but the considered opinion was that it would be OK. I did manage to get to the end of the session this time but passed out as everything was being put away. This has prompted them to set up a list of People Who Should Never Be Asked For Blood, Ever! so it must have been a doozy. I've been having on and off trouble with dizziness ever since, back to the levels I had before we moved. Although the heat may not be helping with this (but I'm not going to be so British as to complain about the nice weather.)

Despite all this, I do have some pictures to post. First is Suz's RR:





I finally finished my brother's house-warming present. I'm pleased with how this has turned out. In this picture, the pumpkins aren't backstitched. I had to hurriedly get that done one morning so that my mum could take them to get them framed.



And the much be-frogged first part of Chatelaine's Holland Springtime Mandala. I started this to cheer me up when I had so much frogging on Celtic. Only to go massively wrong and need to frog that too. I'm halfway through part 2 and have realised I have a mistake on that part, too, but that mistake I can live with and so will not be frogging.

I still haven't finished frogging. In diversionary tactics, I have instead been knitting a shawl. I may post a picture of that some time. I do have a picture of my most recent part of the UFO RR to share, though. This is Kristin's Cinderella:

I could cry. I counted so carefully, three times. But I’m out by one stitch on part 3 of Celtic Mystery. I’d done quite a bit before I noticed and am now having to frog all of it. I’ve been frogging all week and have only done half of it. I’m having to push on because if I don’t do it it’ll end up in the UFO pile but I just feel so miserable doing it. I rebelled on the weekend and spent most of the time outside instead of inside frogging. Be damned with it.

And part 2 of the Celtic mystery. Part 5 was released today so I'm still 3 parts behind.

I finally feel like I'm getting over the nasty cold and fever I had. I spent the best part of a week just sweating and shaking. But my kit for Chatelaine's Celtic mystery arrived just as I was starting to feel better and I couldn't resist starting. Here's part 1:

I'm at home with the lurg which is a good time to upload a few more pictures.

The bourse and scissor pocket I made for my mum.





Laural's RR.



Hardanger cross