Completed Present: Irish Cross-Stitch

Last month was my fabulous mother-in-law's 50th birthday! To commemorate such a momentous occasion, I made her a pair of cross-stitched pieces. She had originally planned to travel to Ireland for her birthday, so I decided the cross-stitches had to be Irish-themed. Hence the giant shamrock and the "May the luck of the Irish be with you" saying.
The second piece is of a little Irish piggy bank (she loves piggy banks) with golden coins falling into it and the phrase "feed me coins" underneath. I did like three versions of that piggy bank in various shapes and sizes, but settled on a slightly-altered version of Andwabisabi's piggy bank design.
These were fun to sew, except that metallic thread may be the bane of my existence. It's so slippery and evil. But it's so shiny and so worth it in the end.