Post Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We enjoyed having all 4 of our children here. Our DD left today but we'll have our oldest DS here until Friday and the next DS here until he goes back to school in mid. January. From left to right in the picture: Chris, Laura (holding Newman, the wonder dog), Mike, and Tony (notice our "baby" is the tallest one...and he's still got time to grow taller).

On the stitching front, I've picked up a bap sampler (Village Square Sampler by Samplers Remembered) to stitch on again. No picture yet but hopefully soon. I also have planned a project to start Jan. 1 with one of my groups. I've chosen LHN's Winter Band Sampler. Yet another one I'll start in Jan. will be Lizzie Kate's Boo banner. I also have a rough "list" in my head of other new projects for 2011. It looks to be another busy stitching year.

In case I don't make it back before Christmas,

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm still behind (my tradition, I guess) on preparations. Our adult children will be home with us this Christmas for which we are so looking forward. The weather has been crazy, going back and forth between summer and fall (I'm from OH so the fact that it's not cold makes it hard to feel like it's almost Christmas.) To add to all the "fun", our 20 yo DS is having his wisdom teeth extracted Dec. 22. We're grateful they could work him in so as not to impact (pardon the pun) his going back to college in Jan.

On the stitching front, I've made progress on HIH Wee Carolers. I'm getting close to having to do a lot of either colonial or French knots for the hair on one of the women and I've put it down for a while and started LK's Be Naughty.

I've been reading online about the "crazy" stitching challenges for next year. I'm not officially signing up but have started a list of potential projects for 2011. So many projects, so little time!

I wish a blessed holiday season and a very happy new year for all of you.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Well, not really here in SE Texas but I'm trying to get the decorations up.

I've done a little stitching since my last post...LHN's Peppermint Lane is all stitched but I need to add the candy cane button. In a moment of insanity I started Lo How a Rose (Brightneedle) over one on 28 ct. It will be pretty if I ever finish it. I promise to try. I also started HIH's Wee Carolers. I thought since I love to sing that I should stitch this for me.

'Til next time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just in case I don't get on the computer tomorrow, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

I spent a good deal of time in the kitchen today teaching DS how to bake pumpkin pies, baking a pecan pie myself, as well as cranberry orange scones, and some honey wheat bread in the bread machine. The vote is in and the turkey will be deep friend tomorrow so I'll let the men-folk take care of it while I busy myself making all the sides.

I have a couple of small stitching finishes to show you. It feels so good to be stitching again after marching season.

One piece is a Prairie Schooler Santa that I stitched for my final "installment" of this year's Bride's Tree ornament sal blog. IMHO nobody does Santa better than Prairie Schooler. I picked a drumming Santa since DS plays percussion in band.

I also finished a freebie (part of the 2006 Indy Town Square freebies) by La-D-Da called Schoolhouse.

I like to display holiday pics of the kids from years ago so thought I'd post some here in honor of Thanksgiving. The youngest "baby" is 15....time sure does fly!

This week....

It's been a little busy around here getting caught up on stuff at home and other activities.

Our dishwasher died so we had to get another one. The installer was over an hour later than the 3 hour window they gave us...on a Friday night. Grrrrrr! But....it's here now and I'm spending less time hand washing dishes.

My bread machine also died. I thought there would be many to choose from this time of the year and inexpensive but I was wrong. It took me a while to find one and I paid a little more than I'd wanted to but I can now bake bread in the machine again. Tried it out yesterday and the house smelled so good!

I had a "hankering" for something pumpkin so made some pumpkin bread. You can tell I didn't spend much time in the kitchen during marching season...the boys have pretty much devoured the pumpkin bread, even the loaf I put in the freezer for later. I have all the ingredients here so I may bake another couple of loaves today.

I spent the best day Wednesday with my walking buddy. First we took our walk and the regrouped after our showers to go shopping in Pearland. Neither of us had a long list of things we had to do so we accomplished a little, had lunch, shopped some more, and then shared a piece of double Godive chocolate cheesecake before starting back for home. The weather was gorgeous too. What a fun day!

I finished another Little House Needleworks ornament called Frosty Flakes. I also started a Thanksgiving design by Sandra Cozzolino but already have lost interest in that one...there are so many other things I'd like to stitch (and I have one more Bridestree ornament I have to stitch for that sal to finish up for the year).

Today is my DS's 20th birthday although he won't be celebrating it at home. We'll have a celebration with him on Monday. Guess I should be preparing for that. lol!

Finished another one

I'm doing a sal of Bride's Tree ornaments and Angel is the theme for November. This is The View Above by Little By Little and is in the Just Cross Stitch 2001 ornament issue.

Recent stitching

Some recent finishes posted above.

Currently I'm working on an angel piece from an old JCS ornament issue, a schoolhouse freebie by La D Da from the 2006 freebie Town Square freebies, and I also picked up an old wip of Christmas Patches by Leisure Arts and worked a bit on it. I hope to have more pictures soon.

It's a whole new world after marching band season. lol!