ChristmasTag Archives

Christmas Time is Here

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I put up my Christmas tree today. As some of you may know, needlework is my hobby of choice. I love doing cross stitch and needlepoint. It helps me relax and de-stress. It occurred to me today as I was putting up my tree just how few stitched ornaments I have. Most of the ornaments I’ve stitched over the years have been for gifts. I plan to change that over the next couple of years and stitch some ornaments for my own tree. The very first ornament I put on my tree this year was an adorable little stitched stocking ornament that I received a few years ago from Alison. It always brings a smile to my face when I pull it out and put it on the tree.

As pretty as I think my tree is, I really wish I had less of a generic tree. I love the trees many of my friends have that are a hodge podge of ornaments from their childhood or ornaments with special meaning/memories. I love hearing their stories as they show off all of their beautiful ornaments. I don’t have any of that sort of thing. My mother kept all of our childhood ornaments, and I ended up getting rid of the ones I collected during my marriage after I got divorced. I just didn’t want any reminders of that period of my life, especially around the holidays.

So, other than the previously mentioned 3 or 4 stitched ornaments I had from stitchy friends, all I have are just glass ornaments of no special significance. That’s something else I really want to change as well. I plan to start collecting ornaments during my travels in order to make some new memories for myself.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of my tree, one taken during the day (left) and another taken at night (right). Even though it’s not the hodge podge I would like, I still think it’s pretty. As always, you can click on either image to see a larger version of the photo.

Until next time …

10 December 2010

Misc.

0 comments

Christmas

Christmas Time is Here

Please click play and then begin reading this entry. Thanks!

I put up my Christmas tree today. It made me realize just how few stitched ornaments I have. Most of the ornaments I’ve stitched over the years have been for gifts. I plan to change that over the next couple of years and stitch some ornaments for my own tree. The very first ornament I put on my tree this year was an adorable little stitched stocking ornament that I received a few years ago from Alison. It always brings a smile to my face when I pull it out and put it on the tree.

Until next time …

10 December 2010

Misc.

7 comments

Christmas, Ornaments

Ornament Exchange

Since Corinna posted a comment letting me know that she received her ornament from our Fair & Square exchange, I am able to share a photo of it now. I combined the front & back views into a single pic.

Click to biggify

The design is by Shepherd’s Bush and is called “Joyful Night”. It’s from the 1998 edition of the Just Cross Stitch magazine annual ornament issue, but also appears in their 10th anniversary collection book.

Even though finishing is not included in a typical Fair & Square exchange, Corinna and I agreed between ourselves to do the finishing for this round. It worked out wonderfully because this way we were able to enjoy our ornaments this year. Otherwise, we would have needed to finish them ourselves after receiving the squares and then wait for next Christmas to roll around to enjoy them.

I did the finishing for the ornament while I was on vacation up in San Francisco with my friend Tracy. Even though she’s a scrapper at heart, she also stitches. She recently asked me to teach her how to do ornament finishing, so I took the opportunity of finishing this one to show her.

This was my first time making a two-color twisted cord. I was pleased with how it turned out. It’s not very easy to tell from the photo, but I used the same two colors for the cord what were the stripe colors in the hat in the design.

That’s it for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. Until next time …

26 December 2009

Stitching

2 comments

Christmas, Exchanges, Fair & Square, Finishes, Ornaments, Shepherd's Bush

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a few minutes today to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I can’t believe another year has come and gone already! I hope everyone has/had a wonderful day filled with joy and peace.

In closing, I thought I would play along on a Christmas meme that I saw on Valerie’s blog.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate. I can’t stand egg nog. Actually, growing up in the South, we usually had boiled custard instead of egg not, but I don’t like it either.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? I always wrap the gifts.

Colored lights on a tree or white? White, but I still like them to twinkle.

Do you hang mistletoe? No. I live alone, so what’s the point?

When do you put your decorations up? I haven’t actually decorated for the past two or three years. I do still hang a wreath or some sort of decoration on my front door. That goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving and comes down the weekend after the New Year.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Another Southern thing, cornbread dressing.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When I was a kid, we did because Christmas Eve was always spent with my extended paternal family. When I open presents now varies with whenever I’m able to get together with my friends with whom I exchange presents. Living alone and not having children, Christmas isn’t probably the same for me as for most people.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? When I put one up, it’s got white twinkling lights, a set of coordinated matte finish Victorian ornaments (burgundy, navy blue, and hunter green), a mish-mash of other ornaments (mostly stitched), and a bunch of burgundy velvet bows.

Snow: love it or hate it? I live in the Los Angeles, so we don’t get snow here. The closest snow to me is a couple of hours away at the mountains. I enjoy going to visit snow, but I wouldn’t want to live with it.

Can you ice skate? I used to occasionally go ice skating when I was a kid, but I haven’t been in years. So, I’ll go with no.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? My grandmother’s coconut cake, followed closely by her coconut candy that she made using the leftover coconut from the cake.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? I don’t really have any. When I was a kid, it was walking to my paternal grandparent’s house after we had opened all the presents to show/tell them what I got.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Yuck! I don’t like peppermint.

Favorite Christmas show? Favorite TV show is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Favorite movie is It’s a Wonderful Life.

I’ll sign off with one of my new favorite Christmas songs. I especially love the homage to Toto near the end. If you aren’t familiar with Straight No Chaser, I highly recommend them! It’s hard to beat good a cappella harmony.

Until next time … Merry Christmas!

25 December 2009

Misc.

9 comments

Christmas, Memes, Straight No Chaser

New Stash – Part 1

Ok, so when I started collecting the photos of the new stash I’ve gotten in the past month, I realized there was so much I needed to break it up into two posts. When I fall off the no stash buying wagon, I clearly do it in a big way.

I’ll start this first new stash post with photos of some stuff that I’ve gotten, but didn’t actually buy. I got a couple of Mirabilia charts from friends at my LNS. Next, I was thrilled to receive a couple of items by The Stitcherhood that were on my wish list as a gift from the designer! Thank you again so very much, Maria! (Be sure to check out her blog for some cute freebies, too!)

Design: Circle of Friends
Designer: Mirabilia

Design: Queen of Freedom
Designer: Mirabilia

Design: Stitchers’ Samplers
Designer: The Stitcherhood

Design: Haunted Holler
Designer: The Stitcherhood

The friend that gave me the Queen of Freedom chart also gave me a stitcher’s third [24" x 27"] cut of Wichelt Silvery Moon fabric. As soon as I saw it, I thought of the beautiful Victoria Sampler Christmas designs stitched on a similarly colored fabric. I ended up deciding on & purchasing the Christmas Village design since it doesn’t require any Hardanger.

Design: Christmas Village
Designer: Victoria Sampler

The last thing I’ll share today is a kit I picked up from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. (I also purchased the kit for the Moon Witch finish shown in my previous post from her as well.) It’s the October teacup from Just Another Button Company. If you look closely, you’ll notice it’s a little skull. How cute is that?! If you want to see what it will look like when finished, click here.

Design: October 2009 Cup of Tea
Designer: Just Another Button Company

Update: I realized that I missed posting my TUSAL update for this month. Imagine that! I think I’ve only posted it on the correct day a couple of times this year. Oops! Anyway, here is my latest TUSAL update:

Ok, that’s it for now. I’ll try and get part two of the new stash up in the next couple of days. Until then …

22 November 2009

Stitching

4 comments

Christmas, Halloween, Mirabilia, Stash, The Stitcherhood, Totally Useless SAL, Victoria Sampler

Wow, nice RAK!

Before I get to the RAK, let me start by apologizing for not blogging much lately. I was down for a couple of weeks with a severe staph infection in one of my eyes. Since that cleared up, I’ve been caught up in a new book series I’m reading, but more on that later.

Now, on to the topic at hand … I’ve been a very lucky stitcher lately and have actually received two RAKs (Random Act of Kindness). One of them was received from Anne S. a couple of weeks ago, but I’m woefully behind in updating my blog, so I’m just now getting around to posting about it. I did thank Anne when I received it though.

She sent me a couple of gorgeous colors of Carrie’s Creation Threads over-dyed cotton floss, some needles, a beautiful Melbourne photo postcard, a couple of pieces of glorious chocolate, and a lovely card from Anne. I will admit that the chocolate didn’t last the day after getting the package.

Then, a couple of days ago, I was one of several recipients of a beautiful bookmark made by Annette.

They were inspired by the mutual ~~appreciation~~ obsession that we all share for the Black Dagger Brotherhood book series by J.R. Ward. In Annette’s words, which I completely agree with, the series is Crackilicious! I started the series 13 days ago and I should finish the 4th book in the series tomorrow. Yeah, it’s definitely book crack.

With all the reading I’ve been doing, I’ve not been doing quite as much stitching. I have still managed to get some done though. I’ve had three small finishes this month. I will share pictures of two of them, but can’t share the third as it’s for an exchange and I’ve not mailed it yet.

Moon Witch (photo is a bit over-exposed, sorry!)
Designer: The Primitive Needle
Fabric: 28-count Days Gone By linen
Fibers: Belle Soie, GAST, and WDW

Noel Naturally
Designer: The Cat’s Whiskers
Fabric: 32-count Lambswool linen
Fiber: Threadwerx

I’ve also finally had to admit to myself that I’ve failed miserably at my 25-project no stash challenge. I made it through 12 projects, but I’m totally off the wagon now. On the upside, I have some great new stash. I’ll share pictures of what I’ve purchased recently in my next post.