My fingers are itchin' to be stitchin'

Cross stitching that is.
Black gold, Texas tea.
No, wait, I'm confusing myself.
I have a hankering lately to be cross stitching.
I only wish that I could sew, but we've already discussed that.
I do have a cross stitch piece that needs to be repaired, however.
Well, if not repaired, finished at least, and isn't that the perfect place to start - with something that needs to be finished.
I created this piece for my youngest. I saw the pattern in a magazine, and thought, oh this is wonderful. I stitched it on, oh gosh, maybe an Aida 16 or 18 count, something like that. I followed the pattern to a T - actually you could pick between two color schemes, and I went with the colors that were more feminine.
So I stitched, and stitched, and stitched.
When it was finished, I thought, but wait, you can't see the saying that is in the middle.
Here's what it looks like:

I looked at the pattern, I checked the internet to see if there were any corrections to the colors, but no.
Then I decided that maybe I should stitch around the letters, perhaps make them pop.
I chose a color that would coordinate with one of the lighter colors. This was in thinking that the light against the dark squares would work.
Nope.
Still couldn't see the letters.
You can, actually, once you know what they are, and of course if you turn it just so, kind of like an Alien Illusion Scarf.
(Of course, in looking at this photo I also see that there is a mistake in the middle of the pattern where there's an extra line - if you look you can see it - and like all mistakes, once you see it, you can't stop looking at it.)

Finally, after consultation with the child for whom this is intended, we decided that a pink color would help. This is as far as I got on Saturday before my illness on Sunday caused me to be bedridden.
What do you think - is it better?
Want to know what it says?
"You are Loved."
This last picture will give you a good idea of when it was finished, and then folded up in frustration.

The date reads "2001".

Yes - this piece is 11 years old, and you can see that I actually intended for this to be finished.

Until I really got a look at those letters. The letters I couldn't really see, that is.

I knew I had this piece, it's traveled with me from Virginia, but it was folded/rolled up, and forgotten about. I probably couldn't find the pattern unless I spent days hunting through old stacks of magazines.

When I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago, and told the little one (who was 2 1/2 years old when I finished this) that this was for her, she got all....you know...verklempt.

She'd never use that word.

But she was really touched, and for a teenage girl who has the typical love/hate issues with mommy, that's a good thing.

So she'll probably never notice that the pattern is a little screwed up, that some of the wrinkles may not be completely pressed out before I have it stretched and framed, and she'll never notice the half stitch that has unraveled in the solid green row above the "o" in "you" (I really should fix that at least), but she will know and remember that she is loved.

I guess I'd better get to stitchin'.