Taking a breather...

Whew!!  Seems like I've been on fast forward for months now, and I'm just a wee bit tired!  So much going on and I do feel a bit overwhelmed.  But now that Thanksgiving has passed, I will have a bit of a breather, I hope.  I have a lot of stitching I want to finish in a short period of time.

I've been a busy person, but now that my Christmas exchange piece has been sent and mine received, I can show you what I stitched for my partner.  I struggled to get this finished up in time, seems the day I was working on finishing it, my hands were all thumbs.  Thankfully, she was gracious about it and seemed to like it.  I hope you enjoy it for many years to come, Joyce!

And here is what she sent to me.  I can't wait to hang it on my tree...which should be going up sometime today or at least this weekend!

A lot of my SALs are finishing up, and I was able to finally finish the one I've been working on since last January.  I loved working on the heart portions, but I will say the background got monotonous after a while!!  It was stitched over one on 28 count and I love how it came out....now to finish it in a bell pull/wall hanging type thingy.  I wish I knew how to sew, or at least live near someone who could help!!

Last month was Pastor Appreciation month, but we were crazy busy, so when we had a chance, we offered to babysit the youth pastor's baby daughter so he and his wife could have a night out to themselves.  We threw in movie tickets and money for a nice dinner out.  Their baby is so sweet!!  And they brought us flowers as a thank you (silly kids!!)  They work so hard, and I remember when our son was little, a night like this would have been like heaven!!  I challenge you to find someone to bless over the holidays!  I can tell you it did more to get me in the mood for the holidays than anything else we could have done!

We did take a day out last week and went to New York City to see the Christmas Spectacular show at Radio City Music Hall.  And what a show!!  It was over waaaayyy too quickly!!  It was quite a trip, with lots of "issues" but that's what makes it memorable, right?  The ladies we were with thought we were funny because nothing seemed to ruffle our feathers....LOL!!  Here are some of the sights we saw...
 

I searched high and low for this pattern!  It is in the current issue of Needlepoint Now and is by Weinenberg designs.  Once I found the pattern I then had trouble finding the materials I needed to stitch it.  Whew!!  I am still waiting on something I had to order, but when I have a second, I plan to get this on stretcher bars and get started...can't wait!!

As seems to be the case with  most of the SALs I work on, I finished up the first two pars, just in time to receive the next FOUR!!  The designer sent out the next four parts so we could work on them at our own pace over the holidays.  Thankfully there isn't a lot of stitching in the next four parts, but here is what I've done so far.  The beads on this project are slightly driving me batty (no comments from the peanut gallery about how close I am to batty already...LOL) and I've already used a whole box of beads (five boxes were required!!).  I imagine I won't be working on this much for a week or so...

Here are a couple of finishes I did ...

And one of the centerpieces I created for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We were invited to someone's house this year and she asked for centerpieces, along with pie and ice cream.  This was made of cheese and pepperoni and crackers.  I thought the guys would like some snacks while watching the football game, and an hour after we got there, all that was left was the body of the turkey...all the feathers were gone!!  LOL  I'm surprised they had room for turkey!!

 

Last, but not least, is the "surprise" I'm working on for someone....there is a lot of stitching left to do, but I'm working on it as much as I can...

And THAT, as they say, is THAT!!  Off to make a space for our Christmas tree, as soon as the guys are back to help set it up!