Christmas Wrap Up, New Primitive Doll, Ornies, etc.

Well, fellow stitchers, crafters and humans - we are on the eve of a New Year, and I wish us all well!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. I had a better one than I deserve. My kids got me the sweetest and most thoughtful gifts, new Pandora charms, books. They got us a gorgeous book of photos from the wedding last year. So thoughtful and beautiful.

I was so thankful to get the embroidery/applique book by Maggie Bonanomi. It is filled with such gorgeous prim and homey designs. I also LOVE this needle felting book! Oh I really need to do the Corgi and the Jack Russel! Needle felting seems easy enough and I should tackle this one in 2023. 

Somehow, I buckled down and made myself another doll I'd been wanting to make. She turned out great! I can't say enough nice things about the designer of these cuties. Her gorgeous patterns can be found on Etsy at Liberty Creek Primitives. The patterns are adorable, and her instructions are fantastic. Very easy for a beginner too (if you have a basic understanding of sewing)! This little sweetie is called "Rejoice" in her store. I need to add a red stuffed heart or stocking for her to hold. Not sure which at this time!

I picked up my needle for a few minutes this week, but not even enough progress to show. However, I do want to show off my daughter in law's amazing skills here with some felt ornaments I was lucky enough to be gifted! She had a friend show her the basics, and she practiced and practiced and then downloaded some patterns and made these beautiful ornies for me. I could have cried! 

This is something else I've always wanted to learn to do. And now I have someone to show me everything about it! WOW. To say I was surprised is an understatement! I mean, she absolutely has amazing talent at so many things, but I never expected needlework! She is awesome. <3

I need to focus on my health and creativity this year again. I'm delving in next week and continuing the journey I started earlier this year. I have new challenges and things to overcome, but I'm looking forward to getting some of these things behind me and moving on. Lots to do.

Please don't put any undue burdens on yourself to do more, be more, etc. Just be. If you have a new goal, by all means, go for it. But I think a lot of times we set ourselves up for disappointment and feelings of inadequacy by trying to come up with too many goals, you know? 

We've had lots of things to deal with this year, including the loss of my mother in law. It's been a rough one in many ways. But also a good one in many ways. We carry all of this with us into 2023. My main goal is to handle whatever comes my way with patience, and as much grace as I can muster. Be calm, and carry on!

I hope you all have a creative and happy and healthy New Year! I will see you soon with more stitching stuff! Take care of one another and stay safe. 

Until next time,

Quick February Update!

Feb. 9th. I'm starting this year in more disarray than I ever remember. This ongoing pandemic. A very serious health issue for my husband's mom. My stitching mojo just up and disappearing. I did do some stitching on my most recent one, and hope to have it done soon. Things are just a bit discombobulated. I need some new routines I think, in order for me to get straightened out and back on the track I need to be on. Anyone else feeling similar? 

We rounded out the year with an AMAZING dinner at one of our favorite gourmet places. The food is incredible, service is amazing and the whole holiday vibe was just awesome. We had so much fun. The place is called Fahrenheit 132 in downtown Fredericksburg VA. I am STILL thinking about the meal I had!

I crocheted my son a cute little S'More for their growing collection of stuff I make that they probably don't want, lol. 

I'm sorry. I just cannot get over the faces, lol. So cute! We had a really horrid snowstorm the first week of January. Our major highway was shut down for over 24 hours and people were just stuck there with no way out for all that time. Power outages were everywhere and my mom came to stay with us for a week due to that fact. I loved having her here though! I got to wait on her and just visit at length. I can't remember the last time I spent that much time with her and I really enjoyed it! My son did too.

Next update will definitely include some stitching! There is just so much good stitching to be had, you know? I think that buying stitching supplies and patterns is a totally separate hobby from actually stitching. I'm really good at the first part! LOL.

Well, that's it for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year (and January!). Here's to starting some new habits, and bringing back some old ones that were good....

Until next time,

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve. 

 

 

A Little Christmas Spirit and a Fudge Recipe!

What a couple of weeks it has been. My work has just been crazy and I have desperately been trying to sneak in some Christmas sprit amongst all the bad news out there. So I thought I would share some handmade Christmas items I completed over the years. And it reminded me that I need to do more. 

 The Santa cross stitch pillow is from a hardback Leisure Arts book and it's one of the first cross stitches I ever did when I started stitching. The Santa ornament is a chalkware type ornament that I painted and finished myself. I have one with a green hat too. The resin Santas came unfinished and I painted them by hand and then antiqued and sealed them. I have more of them, but these are some of my favorites. I was on a real resin Santa kick for a while in the 90's. The little stuffed snowman was a project my sister and I came up with. She came over for an afternoon and we made little snowmen-probably about 25 or so years ago actually. Fun memories.

Like I said, just trying to get a little festive. I love twinkle lights inside and we have colored lights around the windows and glass door. When you stand outside and look in, it really looks cozy and warm. I have come to love Swedish star lanterns too. I have two and need to add more to my collection. I keep threatening to move to Northern Sweden to a little red house, and I'll need lots of these when I do.

I only managed a bit of stitching, but here's a little update on Fancey Blackett's Brooms.

The nose on this cauldron cracks me up. I don't know why. I can't wait to finish this up. It's been so fun to work on. 

I managed to squeeze in some other crafty stuff lately. I finished my Journey Blanket Scarf.

And I'm making some wooden bead scandanavian star ornaments. You can grab the tutorial HERE.

These are really fun and neat. I made a promise to myself to make 4-5 handmade ornaments every year from now on. I haven't done that in so long and it's so much fun, and so meaningful. Plus I'll have something special to leave to my kiddos one day!

Oh yeah. Also made some rocky road fudge recently! You can find the recipe HERE. It's so easy and it really makes a nice presentation and it is super tasty and creamy! Seriously, it's only gonna take you about 15 minutes or less to make. 

Doesn't that look yummy??!! And it is! 

Well, that's it for now folks. Now it's ordering, waiting for packages, shopping, etc. Still deciding what to make for Christmas dinner, but it'll only be the 4 of us again, like Thanksgiving. It will be so nice when this pandemic is over and our lives can get back to where they were. I'm thankful we are all still here, but so many people have lost loved ones. It's overwhelming. Today we are at over 300,000 lives lost. 

Be back soon with a Brooms update! Until then,

Christmas Catch Up and a Pitiful Pineberry Lane Christmastide update

Here's my SUPER SLOW update on Christmastide. This will be so pretty when it's done. I've switched up the colors already, to go with the gray fabric, and when I'm done, I will make note of those conversions for anyone who might be interested.

The actual fabric color seems to have a bit more blue to it, but I can't get it to read very well with a phone camera. I love my phone camera, but I think we lose something in the translation. I might experiment with going back to my old Nikon for a while.

My kiddos bought me some stash for Christmas! Actually it was my son's sweet girlfriend. She asked about my wish list and I sent it to her and received these lovlies.

Are you kidding me with this sunflower design??!!  My goodness. That is such a happy, warm, sunshiney design I can't stand it. It's just the cutest thing. And the hearts on the chimneys?! Love.

Anyone else have holiday burnout? I enjoyed it, but I'm feeling less friendly towards Christmas every year. So much pressure to buy, buy, buy. We were lucky enough to have the whole family come over for dinner and exchange gifts. It was really nice. I'm sure everyone went home and slept well! As nice as it was, there is something great about getting back to a regular routine, isn't there?

This is one of those gifts that was really meaningful. I ordered this for my mom. It's my grandmother's (her mom's) recipe for a Lady Goldenglow cake. It turned out better than I expected. Gotta love Etsy. I am going to get one for myself also at some point this year.

I made the Flourless Chocolate Cloud Cake for Christmas dessert. It was gone in about 5 minutes. If you haven't tried it, make it this year. You will not be disappointed!

Three days after Christmas, we celebrated my husband's birthday. We went out to our local restaurant with my in-laws and the kiddos and had a nice dinner. The kids bought him a gourmet Oreo cake, for which I was very thankful. They really are sweet and thoughtful.

Overall, good holiday season, but glad to be back to "normal", whatever that is!

I hope everyone gets off to a good start and you crush all your goals, crafty ones and otherwise!

Back soon with a hopefully less pitiful update on my Pineberry Lane wip!  Until then,

New Pineberry Lane Start and Anniversary

Looks likeNovember is well underway and Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, right? UGH. Why do the holidays have to fly by?

This year, I have committed to slowing down, buying less for Christmas, and enjoying the holidays instead of stressing the holidays. Who is with me? I want to bake, leisurely drive around to look at pretty lights, do some holiday crafting, and baking, and read. I'm hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas and I just need to remove the stress of buying.

Part of that is going to be continuing to stitch and crochet! My new start is Pineberry Lane's Christmastide! I love the name, and I love the colors. I picked up a piece of Zweigart white linen in 32 count at Hobby Lobby today and brought it home and dyed it. I didn't want it quite as dark as the Rook that the designer used, but it's still in the same family, just a bit lighter. It's showing a bit more brown that it is here--it is a gray.

I saw a stitcher with another blog do one of the reindeer in red and I thought it was SO adorable. I might have to copy that idea! I just wanted something wintery and Christmasy to work on while the weather is cold and the holidays are looming. This really does the trick for me!

I'm using the DMC floss instead of The Gentle Art ones, mostly because I am impatient and didn't want to wait for them to ship! And if I could stomach the weekend traffic, I'd go the 1+ hours drive to my nearest cross stitch shop, but not on this Veteran's Day weekend. No way!

We celebrated our THIRTY THIRD wedding anniversary yesterday! I cannot believe it's been so many years. You know, I really am living the life I wished for early on in my life. We just enjoy our daily lives. Nothing super special, just relaxed pace of life most of the time and our home is filled with love. What more could a person want? We've been fortunate, for the most part, and I'm grateful to go through life with someone who takes care of us like my husband does. He also takes care of his parents and my mom and sets a great example for our son. Again, what more could a person want?

Wherever you are, from wherever you are reading this, I hope your weekend is wonderful! All the important men in my life (except my hubby!), have been veterans.

See you soon with some progress on this and maybe a finished pocket on the Oct 31 in the previous post! We'll see how adventurous I get this week and how busy work is!

Until next time,

New Year, New Start, and Finishes!

Happy New Year! WOW, 2019, eh? Hmmm. I don't know if I'm ready, but it doesn't matter. It's here for the long haul.

My mother in law wound up having surgery New Year's Eve, and it went well. Hopefully, no more issues for them this year, and good health all around.

I have a finish! I finished The Giving Sisters, by Notforgotten Farm.

This was a very fun, but intense, stitch for me. I had suffered through many starts over two years so this was a big accomplishment. I thought they came out fantastic and while I may have misplaced a few stitches in the cauldron bubbles, I didn't stress over it. And I did all those single stitches as pin stitches, so no carryovers. Yay!

I have a new start too. I downloaded Goodflora Stitchwort's "Oh, the Miles!" It is the cutest thing! I'm going to change the doggy to reflect my own sweet Jenny (a little Jack Russell). This fabric is not pink, by the way. The lighting is WAY off here. It's a pale brownish.

I also got a serious case of crochet bug the past week. I saw a hat on Ravelry I just had to make. Now, it IS a baby hat, and NO, there is no baby to give it to, but I HAD to make this thing.  Just look!

Oh my goodness. This is one of the cutest things I've ever made in my life. I cannot take the sweetness! It is a quick stitch and I learned some new skills making it. The designer was so helpful and I mean seriously, just look at that!!!! I have it on my desk and can't stop looking at it and squeezing it, lol.

You may remember me raving over the Country Au Point De Croix book by Helen Wind. Well, for Christmas, my mom ordered me the other book, ABC Country by the same designer. The multitude of cute, primitive designs in these books is overwhelming! So many I want to stitch! Thanks Mom!

Our neighborhood was so gorgeous and festive in December. Christmas Eve I was not having a good day (I ate dinner at McDonald's for goodness sake), but I took myself for a drive around the village and seeing everyone's lights really lifted my spirits. I feel so lucky to be here.

Christmas Day wasn't complete without my in-laws here, but we had a dinner and a house full of guests and it was good. I can't say I'm sorry it's over thought, you know what I mean? I'm just so over all the commercial aspects and pressure buying that goes on.  I'd rather bake, take walks, learn something new, visit friends. All the money and buying---make it stop, please.

I'm going to leave with one more photo and link. I made a chicken and dumplings meal last night, and would love to share. It was so wonderful and easy.  Find the recipe HERE:

 It would be great on a snowy cold evening like we had last night. My husband made the actual dumplings while I was stirring and adding things to the pot and he did a great job!

Enjoy your week, and do some wintery things--go for a walk in the cold, light a favorite candle, take a hot bath, enjoy some tea, read on the sofa with cuddly blankets, or make a new comfort food recipe!

So close! December Musings and other stuff.

I hope everyone is having a nice end of Fall and early Winter. Here, on this day, we have a LOT of snow coming down right now and it's beautiful.

  As of right now, around 5:30pm, it's really dangerous on the roads and there are many accidents on both major roads and all the back roads near us. My husband has gone out to fetch my son's girlfriend (bless him!), and bring her home safely. I wanted her to come home much earlier, but she had something to take care of and got on the road as soon as she could, but it's just too bad out. Really pretty snow to look at and watch from inside, but deathly dangerous to be out in it!

Thanksgiving was nice with friends and family around again. Menu was much like last year and everything came out great. I just cannot believe Christmas is upon us again. Love these kids right here.

I'm beginning not to enjoy it like I used to. Lots of reasons for that, and I think I need a separate blog to discuss those things.  Heck, maybe two additional blogs, lol.  Be on the lookout...........
Nearly done with The Giving Sisters. I'm getting tired of looking at it with all the snow and cold going on around me. Used the pin stitch to do the single stitching above the cauldron.  So many ways to fudge around with a stitch out there all by itself.  Easy to lose count too!

 SO CLOSE to being done! I want this off my bars before Christmas, and I want to stitch something wintry!

Also been working on some crochet stars. So relaxing and fun and it puts me a bit more of a festive mood working with all white yarn and some pretty snowflake stars. I'm going to turn them into a banner or string of them to put up somewhere for the whole winter season.

Well, I'll stop for now. Time to get dinner (pot roast) out of the oven and hope my husband and my girl make it home safe and sound. I hate not having everyone safely inside these four walls. I hope you and yours are tucked away, enjoying the evening and being festive!