Advent Day 23

Well....here we are, Christmas Eve Eve.  Last week I thought I had soooo much time...then life hit...haha.  Thankfully I was able to get my wrapping done yesterday.  All that's left is to make the meatballs and tomato sauce...and that shouldn't take long at all.  I'll do that tomorrow morning, as I will have Miss Sassy Pants today.  I can't wait!!  Usually she arrives before the sun comes up, but they aren't bringing her by until a little later today.  I actually slept 7 hours last night and it felt great!  I almost feel human!

This popped up in my memories on FB today...from 10 years ago.  So funny as I had found this in a pile of pieces to fully finish...and had cut the cardboard and gathered supplies then the creative juices stopped flowing.  I REALLY need to get this on my tree sooner rather than later.  Star of Wonder by Blackberry Designs...one of my favorites!  Stitched on 40 count natural OVER ONE.  Yep, I was crazy back then!  LOL!!

  

So I didn't get as much stitching over the weekend as I had hoped.  I'm still working on page 3 of Sarah Sanderson.  I'm not sure how much I'll get done today, I guess it depends on a certain someone taking a nap, but I'm not counting on that...lol!   We have way too much fun.  I did make pretty good headway on Sarah so I'm not too disappointed!  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some new pictures of our adventures today.  

Til then...Happy Stitching! 

December International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

Well I didn't get to stitch on every IHSW this year, but thankfully I had a little time this weekend to get some stitching done.  I'm so thrilled that I was able to finish Christmas All Through The House before Christmas.  I started here...  

and here is where I ended Friday night.

I found this pattern by Patricia Andrle in the Sept/Oct 1994 of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine.  I sure miss that magazine!!  Unfortunately I won't be able to fully finish it until after the holidays.  The outside of the house was stitched on 25 count Bone evenweave while the interior was stitched on 36 count Antique White.  I'm looking forward to getting it framed!  There is a companion piece to this that is a Flower Shop.  I have it kitted...hopefully one day I'll get to stitch that one too!

I've been working on Sarah Sanderson by The Scarlett House also this weekend.  She was set aside in favor of getting some Christmas stitching done, but I'm back stitching on her again.  It's tedious work as I'm working on 46 count over two.  I love how small things are.  Here is where I started...  

Here is where I finished Sunday night...I almost reached my goal of getting off that third page...almost...haha  

I was able to get my wrapping done today.  I'll have my oldest Granddaughter tomorrow so I tried to get all my extra stuff done today.... sadly I will still have to make my now famous meatballs (in my own mind) the morning of Christmas Eve for the party that night.  No rest for the wicked as they say...lol.  I hope you all were able to make great progress on your stitching!  Merry Christmas and Happy Stitching!!   

Advent Day 22

Merry Christmas!  As my cousin says...only three more sleeps!  Are you getting excited yet?  It's the Fourth Sunday of Advent and today we celebrate Faithfulness ... Blessed are they who believe.  Knowing Jesus brings us Joy, and Peace, and Hope because He is faithful to us.

  

Well I had high hopes of getting my wrapping done, but...well you know what they say about the best laid plans...so now I'm forced to get it all done today.  Yesterday the kids asked me (after I offered to have Miss Sassy Pants over for the day) to spend the day with my oldest granddaughter tomorrow.  I need to make meatballs for the Christmas Eve party, too.  So today I will be busy doing all those things.  Hopefully I'll have a little time for stitching (fingers crossed).  

Why didn't I get any of these things done yesterday?  You guessed it, I was STITCHING!  (I also had to cheer for the Ravens...who won by the way!)  I finally picked up Sarah Sanderson again and I made pretty good progress.  When you see the picture it doesn't look like much, but I'm stitching on 46 count, so I'm having to count very carefully, make sure I only stitch over two threads, and honestly those tiny stitches don't cover much...so it looks like I'm stitching at a snails pace.  I'm hoping (but highly doubting) I'll make it off the page I'm working on today.  I only have 7 letters and a little bit of those border lines to make it off the page...wish me luck! 

So that's all the news today.  I hope you are enjoying the season.  Happy Stitching! 

Advent Day 21

Merry Christmas!  I love the little reindeer on the EMS Advent today, he's one of my favorites!  

Seems the closer we get to the 25th, the faster the days go!  I am not going near any shops now...haha.  People are getting desperate so I'll leave the last minute rush to them.  Sometime this weekend (while trying to marathon stitch for ISHW which is this weekend too) I hope to fit in a little bit of wrapping.  Thankfully I have some gift bags, that should shorten my wrapping time...haha.  The kids didn't want traditional gifts this year so that cut down on shopping too, but they wanted "Adventures" sooooo...that took more mental gymnastics to figure out.  I hope they like what we decided.  

I'm happy to announce that Christmas All Through The House is finished!!  I hope to get it framed next month.  I'm still trying to figure out how I will accomplish that, so I think I might take it to a different framer with more choices of frames.  I wish the shop I used to work in was still around.    

I'll be working on Sarah Sanderson by The Scarlett House for the rest of the weekend.  I set her aside to get some Christmas stitching done but once I picked it up last night, I realized how much I love stitching on her.  I finally made it to the right hand corner (always a relief when you know it's going to fit on your fabric!)  Those little animals were fun to stitch, as well as the flowers in the corner.  I'm not a fan of alphabets, but those are next to accomplish!  LOL!!  One of my goals this year will be to finish her (hopefully in time for the fair).  

Ok, so that's all the news for now.  I thought the pattern from Running With Needles & Scissors was so cute today!  You'll have to take a peek in the page if you want to see pictures.  I'm off to enjoy my Egg McMuffin from Mickey D's...our Saturday morning treat.  I'm so spoiled!  Happy Saturday and Happy Stitching!!  

Advent Day 20

Merry Christmas and Happy Friday!  I had the BEST day shopping with my good friend Lady M yesterday.  It's funny how we met, on jury duty.  We made each other laugh, and still do.  We don't see each other too often, but when we get together we have a lot of fun.  It was nice "lady shopping" with her....when I shop with DH, it's almost a surgical procedure.  He knows what he is looking for, we practically trot to where it should be...find what we think we are looking for, don't look at labels, just pick it up and trot to the checkout...we are in and out of stores in minutes.  When we get home we realize we have the wrong size, color, shape, etc so we usually end up going back and doing the whole procedure all over again...lol!!  Lady M and I were at the mall for hours yesterday...strolling along, looking at things and prices, hitting the shops we really needed to hit first, then off to see what else we could find.  I love shopping like that.  In just a few hours we had put in over 4,000 steps!  LOL!!  But the good news is, I'm finally finished shopping.  

I thought I would wrap today, but I really missed stitching yesterday, and I'm soooooo close to finishing I think I'll do that instead.  I still have a couple of days to wrap.  

Today the Advent Box had a pattern from The Blue Flower.  Her patterns are so unique.  Today was one of a whale, and though it really wasn't my style, I think I might stitch it.  My husband collects whales...he might just like this one!  Perhaps a Christmas present for next year?  We will see.  You can find a picture in the Advent Box page.  

I nearly made it to the top of the Christmas tree yesterday.  I will have a little outlining to do, then on to the upper window which only has a little bit of stitching to do.  Fingers crossed I'll get this finished before the day is through!  It's a dull dreary day today, perfect for stitching.

I hope you all are preparing heart and mind for the Christmas season.  I am enjoying hearing the Christmas Carols.  Do you have a favorite?  Mine is by Evie and is called Move Me Closer A Shepherd's Prayer.  Here is a link to the You Tube song (click here).  

Ok, time to get some stuff done around here.  Happy Stitching! 

Advent Day 19

Hello Fellow Stitchers, and Merry Christmas!  It's Day 19...and today the Advent Box held a pattern from Bent Creek.  I ADORE this one!  As soon as I saw it I thought...I have the perfect fabric for this...I just have to find it...lol!!  I'm looking forward to stitching this one!  

I had a pretty productive day yesterday.  Stitching with metallic thread sure slows me down, but hopefully soon this will be done.  I'm working on that lovely Christmas tree  you see behind the window.  I doubt I'll finish it today, but hopefully tomorrow.  

I will be meeting up with a friend today for stocking stuffer shopping.  I always have fun with the lovely Lady M.  I will be late if I tarry here too much longer...so off I go.  I leave you with a little snow globe of my granddaughter.  The picture was taken this summer at the beach.  She's such a ham...haha.  

Happy Stitching! 

Advent Day 18

Merry Christmas and Happy Wednesday!  We are officially one week away from Christmas!  The weather has been on such a roller coaster lately...I never know what the day will bring.  I've had my head down working diligently on Christmas House and have finally started on the interior of the house.  It's full of glitz...those metallic threads really slow my progress down!  LOL.  I have my doubts if I'll finish before Christmas but that's ok.  

What have you been working on?  Today we were given some lovely fabric in the Advent Box.  I'll have to put my thinking cap on to see what I'll stitch on this lovely fabric!  

The weather has been on such a roller coaster lately, I should have put my big girl pants on and gone out shopping today.  It's supposed to turn bitter cold by the weekend.  So what am I doing sitting here?  Off I go!  I hope you have a wonderful, productive day!  Happy Stitching!