Presents

I can finally show you the presents I made for my two best friends, since we were able to exchange gifts this past weekend - The Trilogy's Friendship:

There is the slightest difference between the two - the sunflowers on the right are different colors. I thought it was a little too dark in the first version, so I made it a bit brighter in the second version. I still have one more of these to finish for myself.

I also received these lovelies as a birthday gift:

They include Christmas Tea and My Pretties by Plum Street Samplers, French Country Snowglobe by JBW Designs, Tribal Crab by White Willow Stitching, The Hamster Did It by Stitchy Kitty and Blackbird Sampler by Blackbird Designs.

2011 Finishes

Looking back, I finished more projects than I thought in 2011. Shortly after the New Year, since I didn't get them done in time for Christmas 2010, I finished these two Mill Hill beaded ornaments. I ended up using one of them as a hostess gift for a cookie exchange I went to in December.

In February, I also finished the second Octopus's Garden for my other sister's birthday, which was in December. I finally framed both of them in time to give them to my sisters on Easter. (UGH!)

A quick little finish from an old Fulmer Craft pattern -  Great Smoky Mountains from the National Park Needlework Collector Patches series. I have a square green frame for finishing.

Bent Creek's cROWS. I left out the words "a fine day" and replaced them with another star. Also, I didn't like the Dark Chocolate that came with the kit to stitch the birds (too brown), so I replaced it with some WDW Charcoal I had instead.

Mill Hill's Pink Sneaker kit. I replaced the heart charm with a pink ribbon and finished it as a pin to give this to my friend who was walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure race in DC back in the fall. I also stitched three of these in green with a green ribbon charm for my sisters and me to wear for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk back in October (I never finished them as pins since we didn't participate in the walk after my grandmother passed away the same weekend). I hope to finish enough for our entire team for the 2012 walk.

Plum Pudding's Spellbinding Witch Hat. Stitched on a very old piece of 14-ct. black Aida that I could finally get rid of. I changed the ecru squares at the bottom to purple to match some of my other Halloween decorations. I saw this finished in a display at Salty Yarns back in October and it was adorable. I definitely need to finish it before Halloween.

Ireland Nutcracker - a birthday gift for my sister that I stitched in December from an Imaginating/Sandra Collozini leaflet. Stitched on brown perforated paper with the called for DMC. Finished as an ornament with a piece of stiff green felt.

It was a last-minute decision to stitch these "Sled Heads" as Christmas gifts for my aunts. I had seen the designs from Dixie Darlin' awhile back and loved them. I think the reason I liked them so much was that I had a bagful of these sleds leftover from my wedding (13 years ago) and knew I could use them to finish these designs. I hope to make some for myself using the Mrs. Claus and Rudolph designs that came with the Santa design.

Finally, I stitched two of The Trilogy's "Friendship" for my two best friends as holiday gifts. I haven't exchanged gifts with them yet, so I'll wait to post those later once the gifts have been received.

2011 Reading List

Just under the wire, I finished book #25 last week when our books were due back at the library on the 27th, so I reached my goal of reading at least 25 books in 2011. My favorite was "The Last Child" by John Hart. I read it while we were on vacation and it made me cry while I was sitting by the pool with a crowd of people on a 100 degree day. Good thing I was wearing sunglasses! I also discovered author Julia Glass. I read her book "Three Junes" first and couldn't get my hands on her other books fast enough. I hope she has a new novel coming out in 2012.

1. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
2. Disordered Minds by Minette Walters
3. It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
4. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
5. Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
6. Three Junes by Julia Glass
7. The Whole World Over by Julia Glass
8. Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman
9. I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
10. I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
11. The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman
12. Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin
13. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
14. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
15. The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits
16. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
17. Bent Road by Lori Roy
18. Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron
19. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
20. The Last Child by John Hart
21. Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
22. The Chameleon’s Shadow by Minette Walters
23. The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass
24. The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb
25. Summer in the South by Cathy Holton

UGH!

For the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to compile two new catch-up posts about WIPs and finishes since I last posted (you know, since it's been so long). One thing that's been dragging me down is that one of my WIPs had me completely frustrated.

Last year, before we went on vacation, I started "Sea to Shining Sea" from the July 2003 issue of Stitcher's World. I had the entire project kitted up, but some time this spring, I lost the project bag with all of the floss skeins in it - all 36 of them! Luckily, the pattern and fabric weren't in the bag, just the floss. At first, it wasn't a big deal, because I was just working on the red, white and blue squares on the perimeter and I didn't need the other colors. But as time went on, I became increasingly frustrated that I couldn't find this project bag. I have searched and searched for it several times. I had decided when I first started stitching it that it wasn't an on-the-go project because of all the color changes, so to add to the frustration, I knew it had to be somewhere in the house.

This week, I looked one last time, to no avail. So I finally decided I would re-purchase all of the floss.

Tonight, I went through all of the my floss to see what I might have on hand so I wouldn't have to buy all 36 on a trip to Joann's tomorrow. As I'm going through the floss, I slowly start to realize that I have all of the colors. WTF?!

The only explanation I can think of is that somewhere along the way, back in the spring, the floss got mixed back in with my stash and re-filed. I don't know if one of the kids mixed them together or if I did it without even realizing it was the floss I had already sorted for "Sea to Shining Sea." Regardless of whatever did happen, I'm relieved to have the floss and glad I won't be going on any more wild goose chases through my house.

Now, if I could only find my Tacky BOB so I can finish another WIP that just needs beads to be completed! (I obviously have an organizational problem on my hands here, but that's a post for another day.)

101 Things

I posted my incomplete list of 101 things to do in 1001 days as a separate page at the top of the screen. I don't have an official start date - maybe I'll just say February 1, 2011 - and I still need to add more things to do, but I thought it was a good start. And on Friday, Feb. 4, I donated blood for the first time this year (I tried to donate in December and January, but I was sick both times), so here we go!

2010 Reading List

As I just finished my first book of 2011 (The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian, which I liked right up until the Shutter Island-like ending), I realized I didn't post my annual reading list like I usually do. My goal was to read more than I had been and I wanted to read at least 25 books in 2010. It turns out, that's exactly how many I read. I didn't stop at 25 on purpose; again, taking a retail job during the last two months of the year pretty much put a stop to any extracurricular activities like reading and cross stitch. So here's my list for 2010:

1. Back Roads by Tawni O’Dell
2. The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy
3. Girl from the South by Joanna Trollope
4. Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
5. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
6. 13 ½ by Nevada Barr
7. Life Sentences by Laura Lippman
8. Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron
9. The Dark of Day by Barbara Parker
10. Merciless by Richard Montanari
11. 212 by Alafair Burke
12. Flipping Out by Marshall Karp
13. Strange Angels by Jonis Agee
14. Coal Run by Tawni O’Dell
15. Caught by Harlan Coben
16. Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson
17. Roseflower Creek by J.L. Miles
18. Sister Mine by Tawni O’Dell
19. Badlands by Richard Montanari
20. A Garden of Vipers by Jack Kerley
21. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
22. Faithful Place by Tana French
23. The Liar’s Lullaby by Meg Gardiner
24. Burn by Nevada Barr
25. Dismantled by Jennifer McConnell

Happy New Year!

I just returned from my annual scrapbooking weekend. I got off to a slow start, but managed to complete 26 pages from 2008 and 2009. I felt like my photos were very unorganized - maybe because I hadn't printed photos since April of 2009 and I was rushing to get things done before leaving for the weekend.

Now that the holidays and the scrapbooking weekend are over with, I'm ready to get back to stitching. I took a part-time, seasonal retail job for November and December and it really cut into my stitching time. I only finished one of the three Mill Hill ornaments I had planned to stitch (and forgot to take a picture of the one I did finish before I gave it away) and only one of the two "Octopus's Garden" design for my sisters' birthdays. I gave the finished "Octopus's Garden" to my older sister unframed and then took it back to finish the framing. At least I have both frames once the second one is finished!

In 2011, I want to start (and maybe finish, dare I say) Kringle's Christmas Tree Farm. I have the fabric and about half of the threads. But I need to finish the other octopus design before I can start anything new. And now that I have my own laptop (the best Christmas present ever!), I hope to post more without having to fight the kids for computer time.