Almost, but not quite

By yesterday afternoon, I had finally reached the stage where I could start to embellish my sailor's valentine, which I've decided to call "Rose Beach." I had worked a "fishnet" pattern in the baskground with DMC floss #223 and Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #032.

I exiled our two dogs to the screened-in porch: let's face it--I'm a klutz--and had visions of playing 52 pick-up with the assortment of beads I intended to use, and two eager mouths ready to snarf up whatever tidbits Mama dropped! I laid out a pattern on the canvas--pink pearls at the points of the octagon, rose quartz chips "captured" in the net, and one precious calico scallop shell supplied by a friend as the centerpiece. Some time and much teeth-grinding later, I called to DH, vice president of photography, to take a picture.

"You're not finished yet," he commented as he took several shots. "This is too plain. Sailor's valentines have tons more stuff on them than this one does," he added. Harrumph! I shared the photo with a friend, whose second opinion concurred with that of DH: more "stuff" was needed.

So now this poor long-suffering stitcher, who has tried so hard to keep her designs as clean and simple as possible, is going to send the dogs back out on the porch and add more embellishments in hopes of making this canvas more in keeping with traditional sailor's valentines. Cover your ears and stay tuned!