Celtic Spring - before and after the snow/ice storm

OK, I believe I am back on the "able to post an image" again! I have been trying all sorts of things to get my computer unblocked from posting pics. I finally just left it alone a few weeks and stitched, stitched, stitched. Much progress there and now all of a sudden, I can post pictures again. So, on to my update.
Here is the before picture of Celtic Spring in January 2011, before any of the cold spells swept the desert land of El Paso:

The above picture is of the bottom portion of the skirt, the very top of the picture is the rest of the fabric rolled on the scroll rod.
Now, here is current picture after the snow/ice storm from early Feb 2011, plus 10 days more:

I still have a little bit more to fill in the scrolls near the bottom of the skirt, then the ornamentation along the sides. Then, the fun part. BEADS! I am giving myself a deadline of 2 weeks and 2 days, which will be March 6th, my mom's birthday. I want to start another large project on that day and it's a date I'll remember.

The bad thing is the fabric I ordered for the next project was in December stupidly expecting it to come in that month and I would have a New Year's start, but it didn't come in. In January, I was told the fabric was shipped to the United States from Zweigart and will be dyed. Well, mid February I was told the dying process was complete so I might be expecting shipment soon. Great! I'll be done with Celtic Spring by then. Now I'm getting nervous about the cost of this piece of fabric, I think I ordered a yard, it's to stitch a flag with each of the states listed in order that they joined the union, starts with Delaware and ends with Alaska. I'm imposing a very ambitous finish date of July 4th for this one. Hopefully, July 4, 2011 and not 2012! Wish me luck.

I'm going to post a picture of the humongous cactus in our backyard that has "fallen" from the incredibly cold temps from early in Feb. El Paso set a record low of 1 degree. For this region that is extremly low. I realize other areas can have temps lower than that, but this is a desert region and the vegetation cannot handle that temp.

I tried to clean up the cactus expecting to cut it up and make it look attractive (small) but the cactus literally attacked me, first I got a thorn in my right hand and had to go inside to have my husband take out the thorn but the very tip broke off in my skin and it hurt like the dickens. Had to get my nurse instructor in class to dig in and remove it - it really hurt! But when I went back to finish my task, I was hatching at some of it and juice was flying everywhere, ok, well mostly in my face. I kept at it until it spit some of that juice right in my eye and I had to take off the gloves and use my shirt to wipe my eye. Then I spoke to the cactus and said, "let me finish chopping this one little area that I started and I'll leave you to thaw out and return to upright position." Things went well after that. I picked up all the pieces that had frozen off and left the cactus to heal itself.

Driving around town, many of the cactus are still wilted over. It seems as though ours is beginning to stand up a little bit again so I'll post updates. Every year in May, this cactus has the most beautiful, vibrant yellow flowers. One day I counted 135 flowers in bloom, not counting the ones that had already closed up, nor the buds that had yet to open up. It's a big cactus! A neighbor has a giant sequoia in the front yard and another on the side of his house and today I noticed that it looks brown like it's burnt from the cold. I really hope they both survive. Each year I take pictures of the blooms that happen only one a year for about a week. Beautiful white flowers like a crown on the top of the cactus. Very unique! Pray for them too!!

This post is long in lengh and long overdue! Happy stitching and enjoy the spring like temps!
S~