It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hi there!  Thanks for stopping by!  I have to admit, with the holidays getting closer, things here are beginning to get a bit busy!  I'm sure you understand, with Christmas parties, shopping, concerts and other doings, it sure gets busy at this time of year.  I have to admit, I seem to be handling things a wee bit better this year, getting my decorations out (slowly but surely), getting my shopping done (there is only one more thing on my list!), wrapping and other "busy"ness.  I have a few pictures to show you of what I've been doing lately...

First let me show you that I've finished my Quaker Harmony by My Big Toe.  Thanks to a few comments left a few posts ago I decided to make a trek to my LNS to get the recommended Weeks Dye Works color they suggested.  I was being lazy and thinking I could use the DMC substitute, but I honestly didn't like the color choice.  I'm very thankful that I did.  I love it so much more!!  What do you think?

I've been working on another Christmas gift.  I found this yarn at Hobby Lobby.  I wish the picture did it justice.  There is so much sparkle in this yarn, but it just doesn't show up no matter how hard I try to photograph it.  I'm sorry for the blurriness but the sparkles only show up without the flash on and I just can't hold the camera still enough.  It is the softest yarn, I hope the recipient loves it as much as I did crocheting it for her.

I have given Astrid her ornament for this year.  I thought you might like to see what I gave her.  She has been my stitching buddy for a while now, I'm so glad to have her in my life.  She has been a grand example of a true Christian lady and I've learned so much from having known her.  She is one of the most generous people and so thoughtful of others and I count her as a blessing in my life.  

I've had some time to actually get some decorations up in my house.  We have always had a star at the top of our tree.  This year my dear husband informed me that he has always hated that star.  It only took him 28 years to tell me this...LOL  So....we were in Michael's the other day and I found angel tree toppers.  They were just so beautiful, and we looked for quite some time before we agreed on the color of the dress, the color of the angel's hair and the expression on her face.  I thought she was gorgeous!  It will seem pretty weird not to have a lit Christmas star on the tree, but what a grand addition she makes.  Again, pictures just don't do her justice.  And hopefully we'll have ornaments on the tree before too long.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I have been collecting nativities for many years now.  They are from all over, and I'm pretty particular which ones I collect.  These are only a few pictures, I keep some up all year, and rotate them now and then.  I wish I had my Korean nativity out to show you, maybe in a later post...but here are some of my favorites...

This one was hand carved and painted and came from Germany...

This one is made from Olive wood from the Holy Land, and was given to me last year from Astrid...told you she was thoughtful!  It is the only one I have made from Olive wood.

This is a Thomas Kincade nativity, we collected in pieces for an entire year, and was a Christmas present from my husband one year.

This is a needlepoint cube I made depicting the nativity a couple of years ago...stitched and finished by myself.  It was my first...well my only finish...of a needlepoint piece.  I just love this!!

This is a miniature nativity, the pieces are very tiny and made of metal.  There are palm trees and other fun elements to this one, but I'm only showing the Holy family at the moment.

This was a gift from my husband last year, from Willow Tree.  I can't decide what I like more, the ornate ones, or the more humble looking pieces.  I just love them all!!

Last is a piece that I stitched many years ago.  I learned some interesting stitches while working on this one, and it took a very long time to stitch.  There are a lot of specialty threads in it and I could sit and stare at this for ages.  I took pictures of a few of the areas just to show you how much work was involved.

Now, I've heard that some people are having issues with blogspot.  I've been requested to give directions on how to compress pictures so I thought I would add them here for whoever wants them.  If you have microsoft office, I use that to open my pictures.  At the top there is a title called "edit pictures".  Click on that and a menu will appear on the side.  Under the heading "Change picture size" there are the words "compress pictures".  Click on that and another menu will appear.  I compress mine to web pages.  Click in the circle, then click OK at the bottom.  Your picture will appear smaller.  I then click on "file" at the top, then "save as" and give it a name and a place to live in my computer.  Voila...you are finished!  I don't know if this is the problem blogspot was having, but I have never had any problem uploading pictures (touch wood).  I hope this explains it well enough so you can try it at home.  Good luck!

And now I leave you with a silly picture of my crazy cat who likes to sleep in his crate.  We've added a pillow for his comfort, and when the weather turns chilly he sleeps in here, must be warmer somehow.  If only I could sleep that well!  See you all later!  *Hugs*