studio in the woods

I had a great birthday yesterday...turning 60 wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. It helped to celebrate with friends and family over the previous few days, along with a few glasses of wine and an occasional hazelnut martini. It started with my Frayed Edges friends Sarah and Kate and lunch overlooking Muscongus Bay.
The only one missing was Deborah, but she's getting closer. And besides some great artsy conversation she missed this:

To continue the celebrating we had dinner with my sister and her family and another cake along with flowers and balloons. We ended last night with a "happy hour" on the lawn at the Camden Yacht Club with good friends after it was closed for the night. Talk about a drop dead view. Sorry, no pictures...we were too busy laughing and toasting. Toasting the fact that FINALLY I had joined my 3 companions into the 60th decade.

In the run up to the end of summer, I actually finished a new small bird, all done by hand while sitting in a chair by the water:
The colors are a bit washed out from my camera, but hopefully you can get a good look at the stitching. I stopped doing a lot of hand stitching several years ago when I began to have some hand issues, so it's refreshing to do a little here and there, during times when a machine would be difficult to move around. Enjoy!