Melissa Shirley stable V

Both Ed, my UPS driver, and Lisa, my mail carrier, seemed to take great delight this week in reminding me that this next Monday is my last Monday of the summer and so I'll be back to my 5-day week in October.  I keep trying to remind them that I worked almost 50 years of Mondays and I think it's time to take some of them off!!

This has been a week of receiving finishing from various finishers and sending the finished items to the owners.  I also sent more items to the finishers for Christmas.

The Vero Beach Post Office closed its 6th Avenue branch and moved it into the Post Office Annex here in KMart Plaza.  The Annex is where the carriers are based--there are at least 50 mail trucks parked there at 5 pm.  The Annex is also where snow birds come to pick up forwarded and held mail.  Until this recent branch opening, you couldn't buy stamps or mail anything at the Annex.  The word on the street is that the main post office that I have gone to on 13th Avenue (a 1-block long street that until last week was one way) in downtown Vero will move to this same location in about 1 1/2 years.

Friday afternoon I co-opted a shopping cart loose in the parking lot (thank you, Goodwill) to convey my 6 boxes to be mailed.  Most of my boxes are manageable, but Friday one box was a 4x6 ft rug being sent to be blocked.  Heavy. When I got to the Post Office and the clerk and I went through the dance of no liquids, hazardous materials, etc.; and it was time to pay--I swiped my credit card and nothing happened.  Their server was down.  They had to suspend my transaction while I walked back to the shop for a check.  There were several people in line behind me, but all left when told they could only pay with cash or a check.  That's an interesting commentary on our society that so few of us carry cash.  By the way, I returned the shopping cart to the Goodwill storefront on my way back to Needle Nicely.

But you might be asking, so what stitching did you accomplish?  I still haven't decided what stitches to use on the right-hand "wall" or the timbers of the stable.  I plan to finish the grey and dark brown edges in basketweave, but the timbers have stymied me.  Any suggestions?

I did finish all of the patches of straw using DMC perle 5 in the woven stitch (or t-stitch, whichever name you prefer).  The rest of the windows I stitched in basketweave using DMC perle 5.  There's still a little stitching on the doorway.   I also finished the grey corner of the stable front in nobuko and did another strand or two of the night sky.