Thank you all & kittens

Hello and Happy 4th!   Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.  I wanted to thank you for the helpful emails and comments.  Your advice is greatly appreciated and necessary!  I did not know about using tent stitches for thread jams.  Stitching on 28-30 mostly, this was never a problem and your guidance taught me what the chart and my books did not.  I tried it for a few letters and it was much better, but because they are so tiny and the color was light, the thread was barely noticeable as a design.  So I continued on with the full cross, and then realized the entire design is over one. 

I always loved this design and assumed the center flower and such were over two.  I'm not happy.  But I will complete this and then never ever ever again NOT read the chart before starting, do anything that has more than letters over one, or take whipped cream icing out of the freezer a day early and expect there to be enough left to frost the cake.

This is the full design with satin stitch on the bottom border. 
 Not a stitch I do well.  I'm not happy with the wonky look of what I've completed so far because they are not uniform at all.   I must spend too much time at Glenna's and Margaret's and all the other fabulous advanced 40 count silky perfect stitchers' blogs.  It looks like 2 threads were used on the ABC, but the chart states one. I've heard of the happy dance, and I'll be doing one when this is over till the varicose veins pop.

 So now on to the kitty pics I'm posting at local pet shops...Take a look at these calicos. The really dark one is much like the mother, mostly dark brown, black, and orange splashes, including that sweet tail tip.  Does this count as a calico?  Brother is able to pet two babies now and they seem to be coming around, so hopefully, we can find homes.  Yeah, right.  Every agency here is overloaded.  Wish me luck.  Have a great weekend and listen for the popping veins.