Samplers, Stocking, New Floors, Grandchildren, Valentine's Day

January seemed to fly by this year!

I'm enjoying working on 2 samplers....LHN Melicent Turner (participating in a Sampler Sunday sal on the LHN/CCN Facebook group).  I'm stitching her on 32 count (over 2) champagne linen overdyed by Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler and using the called for conversion to Crescent Colour (cotton overdyed floss).

I'm also stitching HATS Jane Marshall sampler.  If you don't know already, Jane was an Australian girl.  HATS released the sampler as a fundraiser for 2 fire brigades in Australia battling the fires there.  I'm stitching Jane on 32 count (over 2) lambswool fabric by Wichelt and using mostly Vonna's DMC conversion.  (The only change I made myself is to use DMC 407 for the lightest pink.)

I've finished the stitching on our daughter's Bent Creek stocking which I'm stitching on 28 count (over 2) Wichelt lambswool.  Because it will be smaller than if I'd used the called-for fabric count, I'm using some buttons in my stash.  Lots of buttons!!  I need to get in gear and stitch them on so I can send it out to be finished.  Next up on the stockings will be another BC stocking in the same series for our son-in-law.  I think it will be one of the snowmen ones but haven't decided for sure yet.

We had our floors replaced in early January from carpeting and wood laminate to tile that looks like hardwood.  It was a lot of work unloading/packing up furniture, moving things around (the floor crew moved the big stuff) and then cleaning up the construction dust and reloading the furniture but it was well worth it!  We both love the floors now and they should be easy to maintain.  They're also waterproof which is a nice feature since we have an elderly dog that often has "accidents".

We also spent about a week in CA visiting our daughter's family and helping out with the kids while our son-in-law was out of town on business.  While there, we celebrated Burns Dinner.  (DSIL is from Scotland and they host a Burns Dinner every year.)  Lucky for me, there was a vegetarian version of haggis that I actually enjoyed.  I don't know what was in it but I know what was NOT in it and that was good enough for me.  ;-)

The "grands" are both doing well and filled with energy which reminded us that it's good that we have our babies when we're young.  Later in the year we get them all to ourselves for about 10 days while our daughter and son-in-law celebrate their anniversary by going on a nice trip.  (DH and I should probably start working out with a physical trainer now to prepare.)

As usual, we have low-key plans for Valentine's Day by having a nice steak dinner at home.  (We've always thought Valentine's Day would be our least favorite day to try to go out to dinner somewhere.)  Weather permitting, we may put a fire in our fire pit and look at the lake that evening.

I'm about to hit my stitching nest and spend some quality time with Melicent.

Happy stitching!

Happy New Year!

I finished stitching The Prairie Schooler's Home for Christmas before Christmas.  I'm hoping to figure out a way to share a frame (change out the stitching) with it, Harvest Time, and a spring/summer PS about the same size to change out for the different seasons.  We'll see how that goes.

We had a nice Christmas with 2 (out of 4) of our "children" here, talked to our son on the phone, and visited with our daughter's family via Facetime (at the same time as her in-laws in Scotland were on Facetime) to watch the grandchildren opening their gifts.  Isn't technology amazing?!

We're bucking our normal New Year's Eve tradition (staying home and watching the East Coast New Year arrive before going to bed) by going with friends a NYE party at our city's Civic Center.  There will be a band, dancing, good company, and refreshments.  I don't know if we can stand the excitement; we've both already talked about the need to take a nap this afternoon so we can stay up late tonight.

We've already started taking down the Christmas decorations.  This is earlier than I've ever done it (I usually wait until after the new year to start.) but since we're having our floors replaced next week (!) and need to do some prep for that, we thought it best to get an early start.

I'm currently stitching an oldie but goodie, Primitive Snowman by Ewe and Eye and Friends and also started a Little House Needleworks sampler repro, Melicent Turner, for a Sampler Sunday SAL on the LHN/CCN Facebook group.  I'd been wanting to start "Mellie" for some time so this was the push I needed to get started.  I chose to stitch her with the suggested overdyed cottons instead of springing for the silks as I was tempted.  After I finish Mellie, I may restart LHN's Elizabeth Hancock in a higher count fabric....WITH silks.  Woo Hoo!

I have ambitious stitching plans for 2020.  I often make plans and do some of it but also change my mind as the year goes by.  I'm in another SAL with some friends in which we'll each stitch one of the Carriage House Samplings Hawk Run designs.  I'd been collection silks for Autumn at HRH so that will be my Jan. 1 start.  There's also a SAL of Brenda Keyes' Red House sampler.  It's another one I'd planned to start so, by golly, I'll start that one too.  I'd planned to stitch Bent Creek stockings for our daughter and son-in-law that co-ordinate with the stockings I stitched the grandkids and then my oldest son asked if I could stitch stockings for him and his girlfriend.  Add in some Christmas ornaments, seasonal projects, some model stitching, and it looks to be a busy stitching year.  I'll never be bored let alone understand the meaning of that word.

Happy New Year and as always....

Happy Stitching!