Holiday Wishes!

I would just like to wish all my friends a very Merry & Blessed Christmas. May the spirit of the season continue through the new year. God bless us everyone!

A Moment of Panic!

I decided this morning to gather up all five of the projects that I will be working on next year. I wanted to get them all together in one bag so I can just grab it and go when I need it. I easily found three of them (one's on my scroll frame next to my stitching chair.) but I could not find the other two. They weren't where I had left them and I began scrambling to see if I could locate them. After about an hour, I gave up and went out to run a few more errands. In the back of my mind, I knew I had put them in a tote several months ago when I cleaned up my work space. That meant, I had lost a tote! Who knew what else was in there? When I came back home, I began to search for the tote. Imagine what I felt when I realized I was missing not one, not two but three totes! Now the other two totes contain knitting projects but they were still missing. I looked every place that I keep stash. No totes! I looked in my craft room and my bedrooom. No totes! Finally I looked in the closet of the spare bedroom. There resting quietly on the floor were the three missing totes. Just happy to be sitting there in the dark. And when I opened the one containing my cross stitching, there were the two projects I was missing. So I quickly scooped them up before they could escape and put them with the other three projects next to my chair. The tote went back into the closet where it is happily residing with the other two errant totes. Do you think I have too much stuff?

2011 Goals

I've been reading a lot of different cross stitching blogs lately and everyone seems as though they are making stitching goals for next year. So I got to thinking about what I would like to accomplish in 2011. I know a lot of stitchers are going to do the Startitis plan where you start 15
new projects on the first 15 days of the new year. While it sounds intriguing, there's no way I can afford to start 15 new projects. Now I don't mean that money-wise. I mean that I have no idea how many UFO's and WIP's I already have. Adding another 15 to the mix would overwhelm me. Then there's the plan where I could stitch whatever and whenever I like. In other words, the goal is to have no goals. Now I really like that idea. But that's how I got so many UFO's in the first place. I need a little more discipline in my life. So I found a blog that has a plan that I think I can work with. It's http://goldenangelsworks.blogspot.com. You take 5 UFO's or WIP's and work on them and then you add in 2 new projects. This, I think, is manageable. I think the new projects I add in will be freebies or ornaments or just some smaller projects. This way I have seven days and seven different projects to work on. If I work on a different project every day, I'm bound to make some progress on some of them. Now all this being said, I do reserve the right to change my mind at any time about this.

So I think I already know the 5 UFO's that I want to start on in the New Year. I want to stitch:

Cirque des Triangles
Cirque des Carreaux
Windmill by Michael Powell
The Wave (my newest BAP over one)
Autumn Abstract

I haven't decided what freebies I want to stitch yet but there are a few that have been calling my name for a couple of years (BoINK, anyone?)

So I think I'm ready for the new year to start. Anyone else care to join Dawn and I on our journey?

A New Ornament!

This year I decided to do something I haven't done in years. I participated in an ornament exchange organized by Bronny at bronnysbits@blogspot.com. I haven't heard yet if the ornament I stitched found its way to its new owner but I received mine earlier this week. Pauline sent me the lovely Santa ornament you see in the first picture. I am very pleased with it and I really hope Santa brings me the bottom item on the list. The next picture is a very pretty pin pillow she made for me and sent along with the Santa ornament. I really like it as does my kitty. I keep having to move it because she wants to snuggle with it. The third picture are the kits she included with the ornament. They're card kits and I think I'll get an early start on stitching some cards for next year. They are both really cute and I really appreciate them. So thanks you, Pauline for your lovely Christmas presents and thanks to Bronny as well for doing such a fine job of organizing this exchange.

It's That Time Of The Year!

I'm sure you all know what time I mean. Why, it's Christmas, of course. As you can see the tree was put up the day after Thanksgiving. Sherrie insisted that it had to go up then so she actually did most of the work putting it together and decorating it. As we were hanging the ornaments, I got to thinking about them and realized that most of them are homemade. Now, that doesn't mean they are all cross stitch. There are the old fashioned felt ones with sequins. There's beads and sequins stuck in styrofoam. There's even a tiny nativity scene in an eggshell. I've done the cross stitch ones in the little round plastic frames that were so popular in the late '70's and 1980's. I've also done quite a few ornaments on perforated paper. Those are some of my favorites to finish. Cut them out, stick some felt on the back and voila! they're finished. But what's really important is the memories attached to them. Some I made before the kids were born and some when they were little. I have a set of six felt Santas that even now the kids fight over who gets to put them on the tree. Super Santas they always called them and to this day, when I see them, I have to smile. So my tree is not just full of ornaments; it's full of memories as well.

Back On Track

Well, since I finished my NaNoWriMo (Yeah, me! I'm a winner), I'm going to try to get back here more often. And I definitely missed my stitching time. So hopefully I'll be making some real progress on my two projects I've started. As you can see from the pictures, I haven't done a whole lot on either one of them. The top one is an autumn abstract that I got for Christmas last year. I love it with all of its fall colors. The second one is The Wave, a pattern I got off of Artecy. I started the autumn abstract to offset the lack of fun colors that I've been stitching The Wave with. So while I want to do one at a time, I fear the one will get too boring before too long.

I also found this neat list of questions on Andie's Blog (sorry but I can't the link thingy) that I thought I'd post. They've made me think about my stitching and exactly what it means to me. So here goes!

1). What are you stitching at the moment?
At the moment I am stitching The Wave and an Autumn Abstract.

2). How many finishes have you had this year? Small? Medium? Large? Extra Large?
Only three, two Lizzie Kate's and one kit from Maia that was of some really gorgeous poppies. The one Lizzie Kate is small, the other is medium. The poppies could be considered a large project. They did take several months of intense stitching but they're for a very good friend of mine, so they were worth it. I also stitched a Christmas ornament so I guess that makes four projects.

3). Do you think you will finish any more in the next month and a half before the end of the year?
Nope!

4). I could buy one thing for myself what would it be?
A house somewhere on the South Island of New Zealand.

5). What is the best thing you have ever stitched?
That's a hard question. I guess after thinking about it, the Stoney Creek wedding sampler I did for my son Christopher and his wife. They wanted the colors of the roses changed to yellow and wanted their own wording on it as well. So it took me a while to get the colors right and then I had to chart everything from scratch. It was quite an effort but well worth it.

6). Do you like making lists?
Actually I do. I like being able to cross things off them and see what I've accomplished. I also like listing the cross stitch pieces I have done so that I can see how far I've come since I first started.

7). Do you stitch in rotation or OAAT?
For a while I stitched in rotation. Then I realized I didn't want to stop stitching on a certain project just because my time was up. So now I try to stitch OAAT but I occasionally I'll stop and do something else just as a change of pace.

8). What is the next thing you plan to stitch?'
I really haven't thought that far ahead since I just started two new projects.

9). What is your favorite ONS? And why?
Honestly I don't have a favorite ONS because I work at a very well stocked LNS and really have no need to buy online. But when I do, I usually will shop at Stitches N Things or maybe Cross Stitch 123.

10). Do you have a stitching chair?
Yes, it's a Lazy Boy recliner sitting next to DH's chair. I have a storage end table right next to me and my Daylight lamp and can be as happy as a clam there. I also have an Ikea chair in my craft room that I can stitch in when it isn't occupied by Sherrie.

11). Do your children/pets get into your stitching things?
Other than Sherrie wanting to swipe some of my knitting stash, my kids are grown and out of the house. So,no,they don't get into things. Now my kitty, Squeak, is another matter. Everything has to be zipped (and that doesn't make it foolproof) and undercover. She's been known to run off with full skeins of threads and hide them.

12). Do you participate in any stitching forums?
I occasionally post on the MB on Cross Stitch 123. I also posted a couple of time when The Stitcher's Village first opened. But I don't do it very often.

There you have it. It's probably much more info than you wanted but at least you know a little bit more about me.

Just An Update

Okay, I know I have not been here in a while, but I do have a good excuse. I've been doing NaNoWriMO again this year. What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It's National Novel Writing Month. In November if you sign up you commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. I signed up last year and was able to finish despite spending the two days before Thanksgiving in the hospital. So I decided to try again this year. And I do believe I'm going to make it again. So my stitching has been put on the back burner while I write an incredibly bad novel (let's face it, no one writes a good novel in a month). But it has gotten me back into the habit of writing which I have loved since I was a little girl. So this year I vow to spend some time revising and rewriting this godzilla of a novel.

What little stitching time I did have was put to use stitching an ornament for Bronny's ornament exchange. I will post pictures of it when I know my partner has received it. I've also started on The Wave and another more colorful Autumn abstract design and I'll try and post pictures this week.

In the meantime, I've got to brag about Sherrie for a moment. As I've mentioned before, she is graduating from NAU this December. She is currently doing her student teaching and so far the kids seem to love her. This last week we went to NAU where she was one of 20 seniors to receive the Golden Axe award. 20 seniors out of the entire university receive this award. It is for the most outstanding students that are graduating. We are so proud of her. She has turned out to be such a beautiful and capable young woman. It seems like only yesterday when she was going off to college. How soon they grow up. The picture is the one that is published on the university website announcing the winners. I just had to share with everyone how proud I am of my lovely daughter.