Shells 7 and 8

I finished all but the white on the brown shell after dark yesterday and as my eyes don't see so clearly in artificial light I decided to leave the white for daylight and got started on the smaller blue shell and the background bits at the bottom. All that is left is the second bit of coral and the border of cross stitches and the rest of the backstitches which I will do after I've finished the coral as I already moved the embroidery ring into position for the coral.

The observant viewer might notice the damage on the embroidery ring - that's from when I had a cockatiel 20 years ago and one of his favourites places to sit was on the ring while I did my cross stitching and occasionally he'd have a nibble on the wood. I like the ring too much to replace it and as the damage isn't rough and doesn't damage the fabric I still use it.