Out With the Old....In With the New

Wow!  2014 just flew by!

Here's my last cross stitch finish for the year.  It's a CEC freebie "Cup of Cocoa" mitten.  I'm in a stitching group who will be doing a sal of the mittens for 2015.  We also do a themed bimonthly exchange block and January will be CEC designs...so this little guy will serve 2 purposes.

Today/tonight I'll be working on Texas Snowman by Redbird Designs.  I've stitched it twice but for exchanges so the one I'm stitching now will be mine (ALL MINE!!!!!!).  Here's a picture of one that I finished.  (The little horseshoe charm came with the design and I haven't yet found a replacement the right size for it.  It's cute without the charm too.)  He'll hang on my snowman tree next year.

It occurred to me recently that, despite love samplers, I haven't been stitching enough of them.  So...I'm hoping to make 2015 "The Year of the Sampler" for me.  I'll start off Jan 1 starting "Hetty Child" by The Sampler Company.  I'd also like to stitch (or at least start) "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by Heartstring Samplery.   I can't even think of this one without the hymn playing in my head.  ;-)  I love that hymn so I think it's totally appropriate.

On to food!  As we were finishing the last of the pie the other day, my guys had the "deer in the headlight" look...despite the fact that we still have loads of cookies in the house. Yesterday I decided to bake a pumpkin pie and, since some bananas were getting very ripe, some banana bread too (for the freezer).  DS requested homemade whipped cream too and since we had some cream leftover from something, I made some of that too.  I'm probably high on the candidate list of "Mother of the Year".  What do you think?

It's cool here in SE Texas...bitter cold according to some (but not for us since we've lived in the "frozen tundra" of MI and OH).  I'm enjoying it.  The plan for DH and me is to stay in tonight and snack on appetizers.  We'll decide later which time zone to celebrate the New Year and toast 2015 with a glass of champagne.  We really are party animals! 

Happy New Year!!!

Happy stitching!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Our 2013 ended with sorrow.  My mother in law passed away the Sunday before Christmas. We feel blessed that DH was able to be with her and 2 of his siblings when she passed.

Summer 2011

He flew back here so we could have Christmas together and then he and I flew back to Pittsburgh for the funeral activities.  It's all very sad, but it was comforting to be with extended family and many of his old friends (some whom he hadn't seen in ages).  We arrived home just last night.

We're in the Central time zone but were so tired that we celebrated the new year during the Eastern time zone's midnight.  We weren't sure if we could stay awake one more hour.

We're still awaiting word from our insurance company about whether DH's car is worth the expense of repairing or if we'll be looking for another car for DH.  I'm hoping we hear something tomorrow since his work commute is one hour each way....he goes back to work tomorrow.

Before our trip, I'd frogged the leaves on LHN's My Dwelling Place bc they were so light, it was hard to see them against the fabric.  I restitched them in a darker green and I'm so glad I restitched them.  The piece looks so much better now.  It's my official last finish for 2013.

I finished 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, then picked up and read Brain on Fire by Susannah Calahan (I couldn't put this one down!).  Yesterday at the airport before boarding our first flight, I bought the Kindle edition of Sycamore Row by John Grisham and read about half of it while traveling yesterday.  So instead of stitching this past week, I was able to get a lot of reading done.  (I love to read about as much as I love to stitch.)

I spent (more than I'd planned) time in the kitchen today.  Later we'll have some black eye peas, ham, and cabbage casserole for dinner and some pound cake (that I'd baked and frozen before we left) with a little blueberry pie filling on top for dessert.  One DS has plans with a group of friends to watch Baylor's bowl game tonight and our other DS who's home hasn't been feeling well today so I think he'll stay here with the "old folks" tonight.

I started a January 1 project (with one of my groups).  My choice is Bestitched Lone Star Sampler.  I saw it stitched on some overdyed fabric when I was at the San Antonio LNS earlier this month and bought the fabric for it.  (I already had the leaflet;  in fact stitched it once for a friend's Texas themed family room.)

I'm hoping to have a progress picture to post soon.

Happy stitching!!