Is August finished??

The last week has been difficult with my August journal. This it the first time in the Bead Journal Project that I have regretted a beading decision. I beaded the tree line around the outside to make a tree border, as I had planned and looked forward to. However, I found the beading difficult - it was not the intuitive beading process that I usually enjoy, but following the pattern I had painstakingly created. And when it was done, I really disliked the effect.
To take it out or not take it out?!?!
After writing a comment on Robin's blog about not ripping out my stitches/beads, I couldn't bring myself to do it!
My daughter provided some much needed encouragment when she told me she really liked the beads and how they looked like little trees...oh yes, then I remembered how much I liked those beads and why I chose them.
So then I thought about what I could do to hate this piece less. I decided to paint the trees to make them darker using Caran D'Ache wax pastels. It was tricky because it requires the use of water and controlling the bleeding of the colour and water. I wanted the darker colour to stay within the bead line, so I practised on scrap fabrics to develop a good water/pastel balance, and eventually developed a technique that worked well. And it did help me to hate it less.
Here is the piece after the trees were painted.
I won't list all the things I still don't like about it! Perhaps the biggest issue is that it doesn't look anything like it did in my mind's eye at the beginning. Hmmm....things change and I have to deal with it.
I will learn to accept it the way it is.
The thought I have when I look at it tonight on the computer screen is "one lonely oak leaf with a beautiful and strong centre, trapped in the middle of a bunch of ugly pine trees"!! Interesting.
I still have an idea about stitching the leaf veins with embroidery floss when I put the backing on, so maybe it will grow on me again?
But I will move on for now. I need to get started on September's piece before I run out of September days.