#santasundayxs

Santa #1 is stitched (but needs finished)

Santa #2 is started

I love these Prairie Schooler Santas, and even only working on them 1 day a week, they still stitch up quickly.  I'm holding off on the finishing for now, since I'm stitching the whole series on the same piece of fabric.

#santasundayxs

My first ever Instagram photo!  

My first ever use of hashtags!

Hopefully next week he'll get a face.

That's all for now, back to school, trying to finish a class before the end of my term.

Quick Reminder!

I could say you only have a few more hours to register for my Giveaway, but honestly, I doubt I'll make it to midnight to close the post to new comments, so you have until I wake up tomorrow morning!

I hope every had as blessed a Christmas as I did.  I couldn't ask for anything more - family and friends and good health.  Well, mostly good health.  All of us were suffering from various aches and pains, some have new, bionic joints, and I was fighting my allergies that flared up with the 2 extra dogs in the house.

Mom, myself and Mary Lou headed to mass
on Christmas Eve, a tradition for the girls.

The weather was absolutely beautiful - we ate Christmas breakfast out on the back patio!  Bright, beautiful sunny days, usually in the low 70s.  I was actually hoping for some overcast skies since part of my allergy attack was another eye episode, and the bright sunlight makes it difficult to go outside when that happens.

Mary Lou, Jim, Mom, Grandma and Dad sitting down to
Christmas breakfast on the patio.

Annie having more fun with the wrapping paper than her toys.

Stitching wise I've slowly but surely been working away on the 12 Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler.  Days 1 through 8 are done, and I'm on Day 9.  Here's a picture collage of Days 1 through 7.

I don't think I've ever stitched as many ornaments as this year.  Many thanks to Becky for hosting the Christmas Ornament Challenge this year.  It was some great motivation for me to not only stitch, but actually finish ornaments.

Tomorrow starts the great Halloween Rules SAL with Myra, Cucki, Ranae and myself.  Throughout January I'll be working on that, and my BBD Anniversaries of the Heart to fit in with the Theme-a-licious SAL.

Happy New Year!

Back-tracking to post pictures

I had to steal some pictures from the Shepherd's Bush Blog, since I forgot to take them myself.  Don't worry, Teri knows about it and gave me her permission!  I had mentioned a few posts ago I'd stitched Blackbird Designs Morning Star, and finished it as a box topper as shown on the back of the pattern.  This was my second attempt at painting/waxing, and I'm happy with the results.  I have another box painted up for myself, but in a blue theme.  I just need to get the mojo to stitch the design a second time.

BBD Autum Star, finished as a box topper, stitched on
40 ct linen with charted overdyed cotton.

A long time ago (well, a couple of months ago), I'd posted about stitching a sampler to give as a gift for a new baby.  Last night I went to the shower, so here's a picture of the wonderful framing and artwork Jill did.  This was actually a joint gift from both of us.  Kari works for both Shepherd's Bush and Jill.

Its hard to see in the picture, but Jill did the most beautiful pencil drawings of pelicans, dolphins, whales and owls (she calls them Harry Potter owls).  Picking out the mat colors for this was interesting, since we kept waiting for Kari to bring in paint chip samples of what she'd painted the baby's room in.  The inner tan mat is painted with giraffe spots!  Its hard to decide which part I like the most, the giraffe spots or the owls, but the pelicans are pretty awesome too.

L to R - Mindi, Kari, Jill

Kari had no idea who this was for, even though she's seen it in the studio for a couple of months.  In fact, Jill made her do the stretching and mounting, and kept asking for input for the design portion.  She was pretty shocked when she unwrapped the gift last night and saw it.

Thank you to everyone that's stopped by and left a comment.  I swear, tomorrow is the day for me to catch up with responding to comments and reading other blogs.  First thing when I get back from my O-dark:30 Bountiful Baskets pick-up and get a second cup of coffee!  Yes, I've kept up with the Bountiful Baskets, but haven't been cooking quite as many goodies, so not many food pictures to post.  However, maybe there'll be something tomorrow - I have some figs I need to do something with, and I'm thinking some sort of rustic fig tart.

Mystery SAL

Carol over at iStitch was kind enough to not only host a mystery SAL, but to design a special project for it.  Looks like 125 people signed up for it, and more are on the waiting list.  The incentive to keep up with this SAL is you don't get the next part until you send her a photo of the completed previous part.  In general I'm leery of mystery SALs, but I tend to like her designs, and I just finished the With Thy Needle and Thread 3 part mystery project, started it well before I knew what the whole thing was going to look like.  It ended up being gorgeous.  Hopefully I keep up with this and don't become one of the spots for someone on the waiting list!  Anyway, I received Part 1 on Friday, started stitching, and finished Part 1 on Sat.

iStitch 2001 Mystery SAL on 40 ct Weeks Grape Ice linen
with HDF Old Maid of the Vineyard silk

This week I was in Omaha, NE for a business trip.  I didn't get a lot of stitching done, but at least it was some.  I took a couple of Shepherd's Bush kits with me.  They're usually on an easy thread count fabric, and have everything all on one place, so they travel well.  Especially when I can't take my magnifier/work light with me.  As much as I love Teri and Tina, I'm not always a fan of all their designs.  The ones I do stitch, I usually make a few changes to.  With Angel Song I'm reducing some of the pinks and purples, and adding more blue, green and golden-tans (Sheperd's Moon silk by Threadgatherer).  Of course the angel at the top was what I started with, and that pink is really bugging me.  Its going to get ripped out soon and replaced with Shepherd's Moon.

Shepherd's Bush Angel Song on 35ct R&R Dark Cappuccino
with assorted silks

I've also put in some work on part 3 of the BBD 2008 Loose Feathers Mystery project.  Not a lot, but even a few stitches is progress.

Saturday morning is when Ogden has its local Farmer's Market.  I love going to it, since its only 2 blocks up the street.  In the 3 years I've lived here, its really grown a lot.  Its still short on fresh produce, and still has more "junk" than what it should have (at times I think to myself, are you serious, people think I'm actually going to buy this crap?), but there's always entertainment and plenty of food vendors.  This week we had a guy playing a didjeridu, and doing a pretty good job of.  Well, good enough I gave him a couple of bucks.

I picked up some fresh beets, zucchini, green beans, 2 loaves of bread (cranberry walnut and lemon sage), and of course a pastry for breakfast.  This week it was apple strudel from Volker's Bakery, same place I get my bread from (when I'm lazy and buy it instead of making it).  After wandering the market, I usually head back down to my house and sit on the patio with whatever goodie I bought to eat, an iced coffee, and my nook.  In the distance in the photo, you can sorta see the pedestrian gate that does out to 25th Street.

I know I've mentioned before about my finish of With Thy Needle & Thread's mystery project and how I ran it out of the house so my mom couldn't take it back to San Diego with her.  On Friday I stopped by Jill's so I could get a picture of it.  Its been stretched and waiting for the frame for a couple of weeks now.  I can be patient, since for once I picked something out that was actually available.  I have a knack of picking out discontinued moldings or mats.

With Thy Needle & Thread Birds of a Feather, stitched
on 35 ct Weeks Confederate Grey, assorted silks

I might actually have to stitch this again.  Myra turned 2 of her birds into cardinals, and they're absolutely adorable.  We'll see about that.  I have done a repeat stitch, but the first finish and the second were separated by about 13 years.  As you can see, some adjustments were made to the colors.  And I apologize for the crappy picture, I really wasn't trying to take a great one, since I knew I'd get a good one once it was framed.