Let it snow!

My new header photo is actually from last year.....too much blowing and drifting going on right now for me to brave the outdoors with a camera.     So glad I have the day off and don't have to think about driving in this blowing and drifting.  My daughter has been forced to stay (oh drat!) an extra day before she attempts to drive what takes her 6 and a half hours on a good trip back to Boston.  In south Jersey, it still looks like it is snowing with all the snow that is blowing.  I expect any minute to see the neighbors cat fly by the window! 

And if not their cat, than maybe I will see penquins on my pool cover before the day is over.
Stay warm all and use the snowbound day to stitch!  Double drat!

Happy Holidays



I just love his face

Welcoming basket of greens

Squirrel Ornie

Another Squirrel Ornie

Squirrel Tree - All pine cones and squirrel ornaments

A trash find at work! all decorated for the holidays.

My Scandanavian Santa and Aunt Emily's Placemats



Little touches on shelves

My teddy bears all dressed for the holidays!

And the stockings soon to be hung

A bright little corner at the bottom of the stairs





Wildflower Tree

Dimensions Stitchery stitched for my mom in the 80's.   I love it!

Close up of the wildflower tree

A Favorite Ornament

My husband's Santa Train Bank that is on display every year.

Come on it!

Welcome home!

Merry Christmas!

All shiny and bright

A nice place to visit

New York City that is.......you couldn't tell by crowds shopping yesterday and the people going to the theater that we are in any kind of economic recession.   They were out in droves......



Fountain at Rockefeller Center

I enjoyed a bus trip to NYC and the Rockettes Show at Radio City Music Hall.   What a fun way to spend the day with my BFF Debbie.  We arrived and headed straight to Saks 5th Avenue for lunch.   Let me tell you, delicious, but truthfully it cost more than I spend on a dinner out at Applebee's.   Well, I can now say I 'lunched at Saks'.....

I guess you have to be the right type of person to deal with the crowds, I mean CROWDS.   Unbelievable amount of people.  NYC's finest kept things moving along.   The show at Radio City was really amazing.   What a beautiful theater.   No photos from inside since they were forbiden.   I only hope those who didn't follow the rules have crummy photos since their repeated flashes were very distracting. 

After the show, we walked a bit. We went inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. That is worth a visit.

I drive my sister crazy with my architectural and scenery pictures.    She will say........weren't there any people there?   I choose to take the beauty of the building.  The feat of the construction is something I marvel at.

This is the reflection of the church spire in the building across the street.

So, that said, here's an update on my life.   The back issue is not a (totally) a back issue, it is part hip, part back, part out of shape, part overweight.   My back did go out a few weeks back but it was not related to the ongoing dull ache in the lower back and hip pain.   One is cyatic (Sp??) and the other is due to arthritis in my hips.  Short term, endure the pain, exercise and loose weight; long term - hip replacement.  So not to dwelve, we will cross that bridge in 3 to 5, 5 to 7 years when we get there.   For now - at the WORST time of the year - I plan to watch my diet, employ portion control (LOL) and try my best not to dive head first into the Christmas cookies before work.   I know my pattern and I will take just one while I check email, just one while I drink my coffee, just two for the road and before I know it, I single handedly have eaten a whole batch.   Take the 7 layer cookies....I mean it, please take them off the face of the earth.   I used to make a triple batch in an 11 x 17 pan and only two years ago found out I am the only one who likes them!  OMG!     But again, enough.....

This is the true status of my holiday decorating...not like the tree from 2009 in my header.

Turning 180 degrees from the table shot, I have managed to get a few festive things in place. Boy Oh No!  Wheres my snowflake garland that I weave in and out of my Hoosier glassware?

For now, the Christmas music is playing and I am decorating.  I did decide I needed to take a little rest from all the lugging and reaching and bending....what a wus I am. 

I am excited about the 15 in 2011.   I want to start already!     I have not gotten in much stitching lately.  This whole back/hip thing really took the starch out of me.   Such a busy time of the year for all of us.   Busy brings me to .....My Trash/Your Treasure - Linda of Succulent Sisters never replied to any of my emails about being my random so I will draw another.   Drum roll please.....and the winner is  ...#33 Golden Angel Works.    I'll get an email out shortly.  Jody also emailed me her address and I hope to post her envelope this week.  Looks like I have two more trips to add to my lunch time running around.......that and decide what to get my husband for Christmas! 

Back to the ladder and hanging stuff and decorating stuff.    Have a great week everyone!  Keep dry and warm.

Don't get excited!

My header has LAST year's tree.....I have been shamed into changing out the Thanksgiving photo I had up.    The boxes of decorations are making their way out of the attic but the decorations have not gone up yet.  Soon, hopefully soon.

15 in One Challenge

Well. I'm doing it.  Call it insanity, call it unnecessary self-imposed stress, call it whatever, but here's the deal......I have the patterns, I have the floss, I have the linen.....what's the worst that will happen?  I don't finish them all?  Well up til now, they have just been gathering dust in the cabinet waiting for someone to appreciate them!   So, I am rationalizing, it will be a win/win. 

Here's my list - not necessarily in working order:
1.  Blessed Beyond Measure - Blue Ribbon Designs
2.  Eat Drink and Be Scary - Waxing Moon Designs
3.  1799 Quaker Pinkeep - Williamsburg
4.  ABC's of Aging - Lizzie Kate
5.  Heart of America - Little House Needleworks
6.  Daisy Needle Tweets - Just Nan
7.  Skeleton Shadow Box - Prairer Moon
8.  Chocolate Box - Little House Needleworks
9.  Needle and Thread - Little House Needleworks
10. Three Pears - The Cottage at Cardiff Farms
11. Tuffetts - Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.
12. October Spooks - Pine Mountain
13. Leaf - Bent Creek
14. Plum Berry Sampler - Bent Creek
15. Friendship Star Puzzle Purse - Prairie Sampler
                         
I plan to organize every project in its own zip lock bag and stitch in rotation.  First free night - lol - I hope to package everything up and be ready to start.   Wait......I might even start pulling floss tonight!!!!  My stitching area is going to be a mess of bags!   I even want to keep a log.   Duh!  More pressure!  We will see how that part really pans out.  Seriously, I think I have selected a sensible amount of smaller projects that I will add to the list in between the larger ones.   Maybe - halfway through/or as I make progress and complete some - I can throw some existing WIP's in the mix.   

Today - the decorations were to be done but I have a funeral to go to.   The funeral was for my sister's mother-in-law.   She was a full blooded Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Indian and the traditional ceremony was conducted.  It was a really spiritual and meaningful ceremony.   My sister has only been married for a few years and her m-in-l was 91 so I tended to not think that she had a big old life before we met her.   There were stories of her motor cycle riding and her trophies for riding; stories about her service and faith to her church /she worked for 25+ years as the church secretary leaving at the age of 78!; her pride of her heritage; and so much more.  There were so many incredible things told about her today that I regret I did not know them before.  Our elders have so much wisdom and knowledge to share with us we need to remember to listen to them and to learn from them before it is too late.

Elizabeth Edwards, 11-21-1919 to 11-26-2010

Back to a stitchie front - I finished my Love and Wisdom by Drawn Thread today!  Yeah!  I got busted by Mr. W doing the happy dance and he just shook his head and said something disparaging to the cat and back out to his barn he went.   Oh well! 



Oops! Sometimes I can turn the pix and sometimes I can't!



Top half of sampler

Bottom half of sampler

This is the spot I need to decide what to do with.   Each corner has one and the pattern calls for celtic knot charms.

  It was a major WIP and I can't believe I tossed into the bottomless pit of WIP's and managed to zip through it when I decided to  pick it back up just weeks ago.    I do need to order the charms for the corner sections OR I need to decide if I should stitch in the date and my initials.  Just in time to mount my Lizzie Kate ABC's of Aging on my scroll frame for my 15 in One challenge.

Crazy Talk II

I pulled put my stash to see what I had for the 15 project challenge......I can't believe I feel inspired or is that a bit of insanity creeping like a dark spector similar to the way the bad guys come out of the sewers in the form of black shapeless clouds in the movie Ghost?   

I found more than 20 - lol imagine that - with fabric and floss in my 'to-do' next basket.  I even managed to find one to send to Jodie with an alphabet in it.   I want to run to my LNS this week and pick up the fabric before I send it off to her to stitch and enjoy and fabric I need for one. 

Sorry for the glare of the overhead light in the wee hours of the morning.



If, IF, I take this on, I will have to make a list to post in my sidebar of project title and designer.

 I fussed and arranged and tried to pare down before I needed to get a serious move on and shower for work without a decision being finalized.   I even put some attention into the order I should start.....alternating easy-peasy ones and quick stitches between largers stitchy delights.  I wonder what the best approach would be......alternate proejcts in their little bags in the order I start them?   On no, more could end up in the WIP pile.  Won't get boring at least.   Or start to finish one as a time?     If I alternate, what will I do when I go on vacation?   Take 7 zip lock bags with projects?  What to do, what to do!

Then I figured it out, that 15 projects in one year gives me 24 days for each on average and of course some will take 2 days and some will take many more.  Seems doable.

I must be suffereing from temporary insanity to be even be considering this.......temporary insanity or lack of sleep......but the mind is whirling..............if I overcast all the edges, pull all the threads, zip-lock everything up between Christmas and New Year's............then maybe.  As they say, it is all in prep work and having the right tools.