Nothing!

I received the new issue of the Stitchery catalog yesterday. I've always loved going through it and marking the pages for things that I absolutely had to have. Now I don't usually buy everything I see. I usually wait a day or so and the desire to purchase fades away. Occasionally it doesn't and I usually do indulge in new stash when I've seen the same item in several catalogs and am still lusting after it. Too many times I've gone back to order something only to find it's been discontinued. So it was with great eagerness that I checked out this newest issue. Imagine my disappointment to find that there was absolutely nothing it it that I had to have. Nothing, zilch, nada. Not one thing reached out and grabbed me yelling "BUY ME, BUY ME!". So I can conclude either one of two things from this. Either I'm perfectly happy with the stash I have, or the designers are just not coming up with anything that is really piqueing my interest. Or a third possiblity is that I'm getting burned out. So I quietly tossed the catalog into a tote, figuring I'll look through it again and see if anything changes. Who knows, I may have missed a diamond in the rough just waiting for me to discover it.

A New Year and A New Project

Well, it's a new year. 2010 was rather unsettling. I didn't have any major upsets in my life but there were many minor things that made life a challenge. Sherrie is living back at home since graduating and is now searching for employment. I love having her home but it is quite different going from just the two of us to having another person here. But it's all good if just a little disconcerting. I'm looking forward to 2011 and a fresh start.

I have all the UFO's I'm going to work on in a special tote sitting by my chair. It includes the new projects I'm allowing myself to work on as well. This is one of the new ones I decided to add into the mix. It's by a new (to me anyway) designer called Butterflychirp. She has several rather retro designs that I have in my stash but I decided to start this one first. Okay, I admit it. I actually started this early, last week in fact. Yep, I cheated. But it's my hobby, my rules. Anyway although this is a cross stitch pattern, I decided that it would lend itself very nicely to needlepoint. Now I like needlepoint, I just don't do a lot of it. The hand painted canvases are way too expensive for me and by the time you add in the different threads you can use, you can have several hundred dollars in one piece. I do have a few canvases I purchased but want to save them until I get better at needlepoint. That's why I like counted needlepoint so well. I can follow a chart (just like in cross stitching) and chose my own threads. So when I saw this little design, I decided to try it. I converted the threads to Silk & Ivory (a VERY nice silk/wool blend that I won't use very often since it is much more expensive that the perle cottons which I love-good thing I work at a LNS). I figured since there were so few colors in this I could afford the special threads just this once. It's working up rather quickly and I'm very pleased with the way it looks. I am having to be very careful to mark off the chart as I go. Since I'm working on the diagonal, it will be very hard to find my place without marking the chart. So I call this my little hybrid project.

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.