I finished a project last night.

Wait. I like the sound of that. Let me repeat myself: I finished a project last night.

That reads beautifully, doesn't it? The project I finished is a tutu long promised to the Girl and worked on only in fits and starts. Yesterday after her grandparents left from a weekend visit and her brother was whisked off to (another) birthday party she asked with such sweetness if I thought perhaps, maybe, just possibly we could work on it, the tutu which had been pinned months ago and languishing in a sideboard cupboard ever since.

In the end, the finishing wasn't that difficult. Produced only of three layers of white tulle covered in two layers of a silky pinky something (bought unmarked from a remnants bin for twenty-five cents), stitched together at the waist and run through with a bit of elastic, I'd say that the total effort - stretched over months, granted - was probably no more than 45 minutes with five minutes of that needed to secure a butterfly to the waist.

The final product could be a bit fluffier and I may well cut the underlying tulle to graduate it into greater overall volume. It's not a professional job, to be sure, but not at all bad for no pattern, I think. The Girl is happy and for that I am even happier.

The next project to complete - grabbing the low-hanging fruit, the things almost done - is an apron intended for my sis-in-law and which has been in its current not-quite-finished state for at least three months. (Aside: Why on earth I get things so close to done and then don't finish them is beyond me. Especially when completion is so satisfying.) And then, I think, a few of some teeny tiny counted cross-stitch Christmas things from Mary Engelbreit. Mary can sometimes a bit too much for my tastes but when it comes to Christmas all bets are off and the more too much I can get, the better.

Susie J will say I need to post pictures. She's right. Forthcoming, tonight, maybe, perhaps, just possibly.