Busy, busy, busy!!

I'm way behind on reading blogs and posting...such a busy time of the year.

Some things that I've been "up to":

--Singing in a local church's production of The Messiah (If THAT doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will!).  If you have the time and are interested, you can see it on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jubwH-RMk_I

--Singing in my church choir's Christmas cantata

--A trip to San Antonio (I went along with DH on his business trip.)  I've been there many times but never this close to Christmas.  The lights along the Riverwalk were beautiful!

--Model stitching....I put the finishing touches on 2 of them this month.  One has been sent and received, I need to send the other, hopefully in the next day or two.

Just last night I picked up one of my wips, the PS Woodland Santa.  I hope I can finish him this week and then get back to CCN's Silent Night.

--Preparing for Christmas.  I'm way behind on this "project" and need to catch up.  One of our college boys is home and the other will be here in a day or 2.

Since I can't show you the models, I thought I'd post pics of some of my previous Christmas stitching projects.

...and in the spirit of The Messiah.................

That's probably enough for one post.

In case I don't make it back in time.....Merry Christmas!

Happy stitching!

I'm still alive! ;-)

Thanksgiving was all a blur, it went by so quickly.  We enjoyed having the fam here minus our DS who just moved to Denmark.  He called though and it was nice to hear from him.

We had our big dinner on that Friday and then drove to Austin, TX for the weekend.

It was our DD's BF's first ever visit to TX.  He's from Scotland (his mother is French) and he had a list of (stero)typical Texas things he wanted to experience.  We checked off quite a few.  He tried pecan pie topped with Blue Belle ice cream, was dragged taken to multiple Buc-ees (between Surfside Beach, here, and Austin), bought and tried some jerky, had authentic (and really good!) Texas BBQ, etc.  (I had him try Frito pie and Dr. Pepper cake last Christmas at a Texas BBQ place in Atlanta, of all places.)  On their last day here, we drove down to the beach so he could see some of the Gulf of Mexico.  (While there we saw a poor dolphin that had beached itself and hadn't survived.)  We teased him that by the end of his visit that he'd be wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a big belt buckle and start using the terms "fixin' to" and "y'all".

For some reason, I forgot to take pictures.  (I wonder if I can get them to fly back for a "do-over".)

On the stitching front....I finished and mailed out a model and am working on finishing another.  When I finish that one, I think I'll work on my CCN Silent Night wip.

I took my CHS 2000 Christmas Sampler for framing and it is already back home with me.  (I love my framer!!)  It's sitting on my mantel.

Happy stitching!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yes, I know I'm a little early but things will be hopping around here and I may not get another chance to get back.

There are so many things for which I'm thankful...I'm truly blessed.  Why is it that often we dwell on the less-than-perfect things instead of all our many blessings?

  We'll have a houseful for this holiday but will be missing our DS who just moved to Denmark.  Our college sons will arrive late tonight and our DD and her BF will be here late Thursday afternoon. (The big feast will be Friday here.)  I'm really looking forward to having everyone (except for one) under the same roof even though I'm sure the time will just fly by at hyperspeed.

I've been stitching my fingers off lately but haven't anything I can show you.  I'm working on 2 models now, one of which is in "the home stretch".  The other one isn't that far behind.  Then I'll either work on something with a Christmas theme or get back to Elizabeth Hancock.  (If I haven't stated before....I think I suffer from stitcher's ADD...one reason I like to have several wips going at once.  I actually think I get more things done that way because when I'm tired of working on one piece, I just switch to the next, etc.  Then when I get back to the original piece, I find I'm excited to work on it again.

And so on and so on.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

and, of course, Happy Stitching too.

Progress on Elizabeth Hancock

I'm model stitching too so only stitched a bit on LHN Elizabeth Hancock.  Progress is progress though.  I'm really enjoying using the silks on this piece.

We went to a memorial service Sat. night and a member of the choir at that church invited me to sing with them in The Messiah.  I LOVE singing the Messiah so, of course, I said yes.  I went to my first rehearsal yesterday and remembered a lot more of it than I though I would.  So now since I'm singing in our choir's Christmas cantata and their Messiah, I'll be going to 3 rehearsals per week for a while.

Happy stitching!

Empty Nest for a second time.....

We enjoyed having our oldest DS here with us again for about 3 weeks but the time came Wednesday for him to board that plane for Denmark.  All of the sudden the house got very quiet again.  We miss him but are very excited for this new chapter in his life and his adventure living in Denmark for 2-3 years.  Maybe we'll even get to visit.

When we asked him what kind of food he'd miss, he said Tex Mex so I took him out for Tex Mex lunches a couple of times while he was here.

Now we're looking ahead to Thanksgiving when our other 2 sons, our daughter, and her boyfriend are here.

I won the Great Turkey Debate (roasted or fried) without even trying.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!  I prefer roasted (and it's so much less of a mess) but DH loves them fried so much that he thinks EVERYONE should love it that way.  I'd pretty much given in until talking to DD on the phone Sunday.  It hadn't occurred to anyone that we fry the bird in peanut oil.  Her boyfriend is allergic to peanuts.  (It's probably bad form to give him anaphylaxis on his first visit here.)  Now it may be OK to use another type oil, but the bird will be roasted this year.  Yes!!!!!  I was texting about it to my youngest son a few days later and he said he really prefers roast turkey over fried anyway.  (He said he didn't think Dad paid attention to him when he said it.....I know what he means.  ;-)

My DH and the turkey reminds me of the father on The Christmas Story.  Maybe next year, honey!

I caught a monster cold this week and haven't felt like doing much of anything.  I'm finally feeling almost human but still tire out (or start coughing) after just a little activity.  I'm going to be better tomorrow, though.  My stitching group is getting together tomorrow at a friend's house.  The food theme is Thanksgiving so I baked a couple of pumpkin pies to take.  I was lazy and let Pillsbury do the crusts.

Stitching:  I didn't get done nearly what I would have liked (monster cold!) but worked a bit more on PS Woodland Santa:

I also finally started CCN's Silent Night this week:

I hope to get some progress done on those next week along with a couple of models.  Oh!  And hopefully I'll get LHN's Elizabeth Hancock on the stretcher bars and start.  I've been wanting to start "her" for a long time.

Happy stitching!

Another contest on another blog:

http://time2xstitch.blogspot.com/2013/10/samplers-not-forgottenand-contest.html#comment-form

A beautiful sampler!

Another great drawing at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Read all about it here:

http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-christmas-door-hanger-give-away-new.html