Waiting on the Fat Man in the Red Suit - An Update

6 days and counting. For all intents & purposes, I'm done :) Have a couple of things to wrap, but that's it. Since I work all week, Saturday will probably be spent making food all day; cookies, cheesecake, cake, bread. And I am really looking forward to having all next week off - do I need some down time, in the worst way! The only thing I have planned for that week is hopefully a field trip to Marietta & Abecedarius; maybe I can get a couple of the threads for Sparkly Hummingbird while there :)



In stitching news, I have a couple of things that can be shown :) First, as I mentioned last week, I worked a bit more on Chat Noir, or Gato Negro as I usually call him when I'm working on him - as I did the actual gato I am doing this for :) I filled in a bit of the confetti left in the many lengths of black I put in the week before - you can see the before photo here, and here's the current:



And on Saturday, we had the December gathering of PINS; since I missed last moth's, and haven't gone to a Tuesday night since the car issues started, I was in severe need of some group stitching. As always, it was a great time - Loretta's had LASAGNA on the menu, it was awesome! - and it was over way too quick. But Yellow Santa did finally get some attention again, so it's all good:



This week, it's time to start cranking on my last goal, Tree of Stitches. In between things this week, I hope to have it done before too late into next week, so I can work on other neglected projects for a couple of days before the Startapalooza starts in January :) So we'll see. Up through Part 6, I did a section a day; if that still holds true for the remaining 9 - and make that maybe 2 parts any day I'm not working, or more - it should be doable :)



To All of you, I wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season, and Happy Stitching!

A Great Give Away

Some of my favorite hand dyed thread comes from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe - you can see some of their threads in my Tree of Stitches (The Stitch Specialist, Abi Gurden):

Well, I just stumbled onto the blog of the lady behind the dye pots, Nancy, and she is having a GREAT Christmas give-away. So if you become a follower here, you can be included in the drawing for her gorgeous floss!!

It's Getting Close - an Update

So, since this time last week, I have managed to do most of my Christmas shopping - just those last few things I have to get. AND I have even wrapped everything that is here! As predicted - cards just aren't going to happen - haven't even looked at any, let alone bought any or begun to write them out. Meh. anyone who ever expected me to manage cards several years IN A ROW clearly doesn't know me very well...



Amidst all the shopping, we also had a band concert to go to on Wednesday night. This one was held at Brenau University, in Pearce Auditorium, another place I have not been to before. And, just like the one last weekend at Riverside Military Academy, I forgot to take my camera (since a certain 14 yo did NOT tell us the correct call time, so then we had to run out the door). BUT I did manage to take a few less-than-stellar pics with my iPhone (I WILL remember my camera the next time we go there). It is an old building, built in the 1890s, I believe, and every step every one took, you could feel. Bu the stained glass windows inside the auditorium were amazing, as was the painting on the ceiling in front of the stage - which you could appreciate IF I had had my real camera.


Our steel drum band, Sheer Panic - which is about half it's normal size, due to lots of graduating players last year. They plan to have auditions (yes, my 14 WILL GO), and hope to have 2 full bands this spring.

(picture from Beth Fike on the FBHS Band FB page)

Then the Jazz Band:

(picture from Beth Fike on the FBHS Band FB page)

And a Percussion Ensemble did one song:

(picture from J Avery on the FBHS Band FB page)

And then the Concert Band, who's Celtic Carol of the Bells was pretty cool:

(picture from Beth Fike on the FBHS Band FB page)

And now, on to the stitching parts of this update...

Another finish, bringing my WIPs down to 13; Birds of a Feather is DONE, despite having lost an entire set of threads. They have not magically appeared, so I am guessing they really are gone. Anyway, it's done. And I have to say, the red flowers in the border and those sheep are my two favorite parts of this!! I'm thinking a very simple mahogany frame - but then, one of the ladies in The Stitcher's Village made a pillow of her finish, and that's cool, too! But a stitched pillow has about a snowball's chance in hell of surviving in this house, soooo....



And as I finished that up on Saturday - despite a brief pause when the BIG TV decided to crap out (you know this stuff comes in 3s - let's hope it & the cars are the last 3 for a while) - I decided on Sunday to break out the ol' Chat Noir. And I put in lots and lots of black, leaving lots & lots of confetti to fill in.


As for this week, a somewhat full plate again; the Magnum is finally going to the shop today to get it's freaking speed sensor fixed - cross your fingers or whatever's convenient that that is ALL it is. I have to finish shopping - a couple of packages have to be sent out of town, once I put something IN them. So I doubt I'll be Tuesday nighting at the IHOP this week, though we do have PINS on Saturday, which I WILL NOT MISS, come hell or high water. As for stitching, Chat is still on the stand, so he'll get more attention tonight, and I'm not sure when I will put him up for Tree of Stitches, which is my last goal for the year. I stopped at part 7, and can roughly do one part a night, so I OUGHT to be able to finish it in about a week. Which would be great, so the time I have off over the holidays, I could spend 1) working on a couple of the other pieces that don't see much daylight, and 2) prepare for my January Startitis!!


On that note, Happy Stitching this week to everyone, and I hope everyone takes the time to relax and ENJOY the holidays instead of stress over them!

Is it REALLY the 5th Already? An Update

Guess what? I have done ZERO shopping. I had better get my butt in gear, huh? There was a time, in the distant past, when I was done by Thanksgiving. Of course, that was back when all I had to do was go grab the newest Legos and Little People and put them in layaway. Now, getting a wish list out of a kid is almost as easy as getting them to A) take their dishes to the kitchen AND B) get them to put them IN the dishwasher. As always, I am the easiest to shop for :) And yet, with one car still crippled, I haven't even done that... I am teetering on Bah Humbug - but not quite tipped over the edge - yet. But Fair Warning - pretty sure cards will NOT happen this year, depending on if I survive THIS week, which is BOOKED. Take car in (driving 15 miles in 2nd gear - that ought to be fun). 2nd Band concert Wednesday. Company Holiday carry-in Wednesday. Doctor appointment (which I've avoided too many years now) on Thursday. DH doctor on Wednesday. Cheesecakes sold for FBHS Band - supposed to pick up this week (today?), deliver. Some other stuff I've probably forgotten. And oh yeah, WORK. And I HAVE to do some shopping!



I'M STRESSED - I NEED TO STITCH!

I stitched some last week, though I do have to say, it's kind of hard to tell :) As mentioned last week, my plan was to work on Anne's TG London, which has been sitting here patiently, waiting for that silly Knotgarden to get done. And so I did. I forgot to take a picture before I started - but I did remember after I'd done about 40 stitches. BUT, since they are all in ecru on ecru linen, this picture is close enough to what it looked like before I started:



I worked a bit each night except Friday, which turned out to be a read-100-pages of Follett's World Without End night instead. I am pretty sure EVERY shade of ecru/off-white/cream is in the frieze of St. Paul's, as this is where it was when I stopped at 9:30 last night:



And just in case you can't see much aside from the darkened windows above, here's the marked chart - I did all the yellow, excpet for one row near the bottom that starts off as purple:


Does it LOOK like St. Paul's yet? Meh.. Another building that I walked past a hundred times, and did not go inside. Why would anyone want to go inside a cathedral? Or Westminster Abbey? Some day, when I go back to London, I WILL do the touristy things I didn't get to do when I LIVED 80 short miles away....


As for this week, I have put London away, and will be getting the Birds of a Feather SAL out when I get home tonight - assuming the %#$* threads are still there :) That is one of 2 more projects I WILL finish before the clock strikes 12 on 12/31. I don't see any reason I won't make my goal - except there are so many things screaming at me - Celtic Banner, Chat Noir, Romeo, just to name a few. L&U is being quiet, I think because I have promised it a few weeks in a row once I get my new starts out of my system :) There's a Yellow Santa that has been screaming from a bag, too, but since I only took lunches long enough to eat last week, he didn't come out, either. But then, I said the set would NOT get done this year. Ha! Called that one, I did :) I do want to make sure I get the fabric to back them all while the holiday stuff is out, but I still have time for that...


On that note, Happy Stitching to everyone!