Happy New Year!

It's the start of a New Year and I am already a day late...LOL!!  I had hoped to have a blog entry yesterday, but after all the festivities since before Christmas I decided to give myself a break!  I even begged for the week off from watching Miss A this week.  I'm just too tired...but I know I will miss her.  

Anyway, on to the New Year news.  I did make my traditional  New Years start yesterday, and I decided it would be Anne Thomas 1854, a reproduction by Hands Across The Sea Samplers.  I fell in love with this the minute I saw it.  I ordered the fabric from Cecelia's Samplers a couple of years ago but because of Covid it took several months to arrive.  While I was waiting I watched for a sale from JoAnn's to get the floss I would need.  Then it sat kitted up for ages.  I kept running across it looking for other things to stitch, and the last time I saw it I put it in a more prominent place and decided it would be my New Years start.  It's stitched on 40 count Vintage Butter Pecan.  I can't tell you how lovely this fabric is, and it was sooooo worth the wait!  Pictures just don't do it justice!  I think I'll be cursing myself when it comes to the over one portions, but I'm hoping it will still remain small enough to be able to find a place on my wall somewhere.  LOL!  Wish me luck, I tend to burn out quickly on these BAPs.  

I usually have a Christmas Day start too, but as was my luck, it turned out to be a crazy day.  So...I started this the next day, it was a gift (so I'm sure you will be seeing it again, hopefully with a bit more stitching on it) from a lady who was cleaning out her stash.  This is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by The Heart's Content.  It was a kit so I'm stitching on the 32 count fabric (I think it's called Unbleached Glenshee Irish Linen) over one as described in the instructions found in the kit.  I do love this one...and it was one of her annual Christmas Ornament patterns from 2000.  I guess I'll need to change the date a bit...lol.  Hopefully I can finish it before the year is out.  It's tedious work as a lot of the stitches are so close together.  I do love the look of it though.  

I usually start the year with a list of things I want to stitch, a plan of how I'll go about it (which usually doesn't turn out as planned), and a list of accomplishments of the previous year.  I was given a notebook for Christmas from my DIL that has a calendar, challenges, and places to write hopes and accomplishments.  Let's hope I can actually find the time to fill out some of the pages.  I will say I counted all the stitches I stitched yesterday, it turned out to be 1,190 I think.  Yes, I had a productive day!  

So for a recap of last year, I started 5 of the 9 things I hoped to start, and finished 3 of them.  Pretty good for me I'd say!  

I had 9 WIPs on my list to finish and actually did finish 4 of them.  

I listed 6 SALs but only started 3 of them and of those 3 I finished 1.  That's pretty sad...lol!!  

I started 19 big projects and much to my surprise, I finished 13 of them!  Whoo hooo!  

I finished stitching 87 things last year, some I had started previous years, some of them were smalls that were not listed as starts.  7 of them I would consider BAPs.  4 of those were entered in the State Fair and all of them won blue ribbons (and some a special ribbon).  58 of them were fully finished. 

I fully finished 89 things, most of them Christmas Ornaments, but some were full sized framed pieces.  Some of them had been finished years previously.  I hope to dig into more of the things I finished years ago and get them fully finished as well.  

I finished and fully finished 2 of the 3 Christmas Ornament challenges I started last year.  I think I'll only do two this year, and throw in some other ornaments not from Just Cross Stitch magazine that I have in my stash.  I want to make a list of people I want to stitch for and stitching things that are meaningful to them.  I already have some substitutes listed on my 2024 Goals page.  That is not complete for next year yet, but hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have that a little more organized along with my notebook.  

When I have a few minutes, I'll take a picture of the book and some other goodies I received for Christmas that I would like to share with you!  

One of the things I truly want to do this year, is stitch from stash, with the only exception being that I buy floss and specialty fabric for certain projects.  I have so many things kitted up that I feel wasteful buying new things.  I also hope to not spend as much time on the internet as I have in the past, because I see things I really want to stitch, but will never have the time in my lifetime.  LOL!!  

I have some things that I have finished stitching that I need to assemble and fully finished, I hope to make them a priority this year as well.  

So that is my New Year's Resolution...along with exercising more and losing weight.  Now that it's in print, I really hope to make it a priority and stick to it for the benefit of my family.  I honestly believe we need to take care of ourselves so as we age others won't have to take care of us.  Ok, I think that's a wrap!  I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, productive and prosperous New Year.  Best of luck in 2024!!