Do you think it's big enough?

I probably need to reword that title but it's all I could come up with at the moment :)

This is what the kids and I came home to this afternoon - lol!

Some background to this picture ... Ken came home a few days ago and said while he was running around getting our vehicles re-registered (not a simple task here!) he noticed an outdoor garden furniture place that was closing down with discounts of up to 70% off. Because we have been wanting some sort of shade structure for our back yard he went in to have a look. What you see above is the result of that look - lol! A 5m heavy duty shade umbrella ... yep five metres!! It's huge! Covers our patio area quite nicely though :). He also picked up a nice wooden setting (table and four chairs) for an unbelievably cheap price which we will probably put up on our upstairs balcony. Ken has his end of semester Arabic test tonight so he took a study day which meant he was home for the delivery.

Heather, I probably managed about 500 stitches during the HAED SAL all up myself. That's not bad progress but not as much as I would usually do. I just kept finding other things to do instead of stitching this weekend :) Anyway, Girly Gothic is back on the frame and I managed to put a nice block of stitches in her last night. I had grocery shopping and Caitlin's school trousers (had to get them made to measure) to collect today so I haven't been home much. I did do a little on her this afternoon and I'm sure I will manage a bit more after dinner tonight :) I definitely won't be reaching my goal of getting her finished by month's end though.

Oh, and I don't think I answered your comment about me wanting to learn Arabic so I'll do that now. I would like to learn some Arabic but I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to learning languages - I really struggle to retain the simplest of phrases! I think if English wasn't so widely spoken here then I would be forced to learn (and use) Arabic - at least enough to get me by. The course DH is doing is very intensive - he is learning to read, write and say it - and it just about does my head in when he tries to explain some of the quirks of the language to me :) It will help him with his work but I don't think it's the course for me. I believe there are a couple of good PC programs about so I will have to check them out next time I'm at the mall.

Now, Leonie, can you really see me as a OAATer? I must admit I have surprised myself by staying with Girly Gothic as long as I have but I have so many lined up to start when I'm finished with her, that I can see myself earning a Serial Starter blinkie before too long !

I'm not sure why I couldn't get into Small Things. I am wondering if it's the fabric (a 28 ct hand-dyed opalescent). I really hope not as it's such a pretty fabric!

Cathy and Von, thanks for your comments - you are both sweet :)

Oh, and Cathy, I'm thinking of joining the "finish 10, 25 or 50 projects before buying any more stash" too. Please note that I put the emphasis on "thinking" though - lol! Like you, most of my projects are BAPs so if I'm going to attempt this challenge then I would start with 10 and go from there :)

Right, I'm off to get the kiddos some ice cream and myself a cuppa then I'm heading for my stitching chair :)