My keyboard works! My keyboard works! (oh yeah, I also painted a parasol)

In their ongoing efforts to make certain I don't have access to the outside world, my kids lost my phone and pried off the keys from my keyboard. That shouldn't have been a big deal, but they somehow or another shorted it out as well so it put a slash mark after every space and I couldn't use the z, b, 6, or shift keys. New keyboard arrived this afternoon and I'm pretty thrilled.

I sent in an update to Bella with the 5 or 6 projects I got done since the last one and really want to say something other than what I said there, but I'm not sure what else to babble about. I'm starting with the parasol as it was a Mother's Day gift from my kids and I'm trying to remember how much of a joy children are and how much I love my kids-- even if they do have destructive tendencies.

Just for size reference, the frame this thing is balanced on is the floor frame I use for large embroidery and was made to hold a baby sized quilt (36x45" or so.) My kids usually have it covered in a blanket and it makes a pretty nifty fort.  We shop for my Mother's Day presents at the Ren Faire, so this is a canvas and bamboo parasol that is intended to be embellished. I thought that would mean it would go faster than the one I covered in silk last year. Nope. Painting it took more time than just swapping out covers. I do like the ability to customize for my heraldry though. My heraldry is an Apres with a ring of the seeblatter around it. The ring (orle) of inverted seeblatter works with the parasol fine, but I knew trying to put the bull in the center with the ruffly topper and the wooden finial wasn't going to go so well. Since I've been doing to much sculpting lately, the idea of making the bull three dimensional hit. He's done in blue polymer clay with gold horns and a ring of gold seeblatts around his neck. He is actually supposed to be vair (blue and silver or white with a patchwork effect) but my oldest son swiped the clay before I could use it and mixed the two colors together so my attempts to make a cane didn't happen. Instead there is a slight marbling/swirling effect, but mostly the two colors mixed and I got a lighter color cow than planned. To add some of the interest back I gave him his garland. I rather like it.

There was a great deal of empty space between the seeblatter and the apres needed something, so I added my impresa motto. I then edged it with some gold trim and a few tassels. They seem a bit spotty and kind of wimpy so I am going to look for some more fringe or possibly add more tassels or some larger ones.