Leap Year February Catch-up

Whew!  I don't know about you, but this month just flew by!  Even though things have been moving at the speed of light, I've had a lot of stitch time.  It's hard to explain how that happens here, just know I put a lot of miles on my stitching!  LOL!!  I know I mentioned before that I hoped to stitch 5 pages a month on Anne Thomas and I was certain I wouldn't be able to do it, but lo and behold I did finish those 5 pages!!  I put in 9,736 stitches in Anne this month.  

I was officially halfway on the 23rd.  I was excited for that because there were a few other things I wanted to do this month that I was putting off.  After reaching the halfway point, I began to stitch on other things.  I stitched on two Santas for Clare's tree this year.  Mr had 633 stitches, 

and Holidazzle Santa had 2153 stitches.  

They were stitched on perforated paper (and I STILL need to get those in the mail...sorry Clare).  Those two I took on a mini vacation that my husband and I went on to Lancaster.  I'll talk about that later.  I put a few stitches in Floral Magenta....very few, I just didn't have a heart for it this month but decided to try to stitch a bit each month.  I only put in 633 stitches this month.  

Then I have joined the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Challenge on Facebook.  Each month, by a majority vote, we have chosen one pattern from the most recent Ornament Issue.  This month they chose A Christmas Star by Giulia Punnti Antichi.  I chose a random floss I found at a thrift store, kind of a medium pink, and stitched it on 25 count navy fabric over 1 using Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid silver.  I loved how it came out and even was able to fully finish it before the month was out!  Yay me!  This one had 819 stitches.  

Next I chose one that is for the month of March called Ready For Christmas by Durene Jones.  This was stitched on 40 count Burch over two and has 2246 stitches.  

There was a companion piece to this one by Durene Jones called Checking It Twice and is published in the August 2023 JCS issue.   This is also stitched on 40 count Burch over two and has 2351 stitches.     

Last, but not least was this Wonderland Craft kit (KL386) that my husband gave me for Valentine's Day.  This was a fun one, using beads (and a silky kind of thread that refused to stay in my needle) on perforated wood.  It stitched up in a day and had 812 stitches.  

That made a total of 19,032 stitches this month.  That doesn't count the stitching I did to make three of the Christmas pieces into ornaments.  You have seen the one above, and this one is Letter to Santa from last month.  

The other was Believe by Rosewood Manor.  These were different to assemble but nice for a change from the round ornaments.  With a little luck I'll get the other two I have stitched together soon as well.  

Now a little bit about our Lancaster trip.  Well, we actually stayed in a little town previously known as Cross Keys (I hesitate to write the real name...lol...Pennsylvania is known for some very strange names for towns).  My husband's birthday is in January...so for his birthday and Christmas combined I got tickets to two performances as gifts.  The first was Mousetrap, a play that has been running in London for ages (he saw a performance before he met me while traveling in London back in the late 70's).  The performers at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater in Lancaster are very good, it was full of laughs, intrigue and quite a surprise ending!  

The second performance we saw was A Tribute to Olivia Newton-John.  She is my husband's favorite singer.  He says her name with reverence, sings (that's a loosely used term when talking about my husband's vocal abilities) along with all her songs, and drools when he sees pictures of her.  It almost makes me wish I were a blonde.  LOL!!  We had a little chat with her after her performance and Mike got to have his picture taken with her.  He was in heaven, in case you couldn't tell by the look on his face.  She was very good, and sounded quite a bit like her.  It was a very entertaining performance!  

We really do enjoy the Lancaster area and even talked about retiring there.  Fingers crossed, we can do that before we are too old to enjoy the ambiance of the area.  Here is a picture I took from the window of a restaurant one night at twilight...so peaceful!  

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Mike will be going on a work trip to Spokane, Washington in April.  We had been planning for me to go with him, but I've had a problem with my knee for months.  I saw an orthopedic and had a shot in that knee, that helped for a day or two and then it's back, if not worse, than before.  I don't see myself running through airports trying to make connections...so I am staying home (imagine the amount of stitching I'll get done with no one to monopolize my time!?!?!?!  With a little luck I might even finish up Anne...Oooooh the possibilities.  Who am I kidding?  I'm gonna miss that man like crazy!).  So...since I'll be saving on airfare, and we do enjoy our little jaunts here and there, we are hoping to make a trip to Sight and Sound to see the performance of Daniel sometime this year.  Stay tuned!  And on that note...I'm off to see about doing some finishing before the month truly is over!  I'm actually looking forward to stitching on Anne tomorrow!  Thanks for reading my rambling!  Happy Stitching!