Tree Ornaments are coming along!

Seasons Greetings!

I've stitched three ornaments for the tree this year, one is on the tree and two are waiting to be turned into ornaments (which, hopefully, will happen this weekend). I've added a few pictures below.

A Cookie For Santa

Hillside Samplings

1999 Just Cross Stitch Special Ornament Issue

I love chocolate chip cookies and just love this little design! And it doesn't even have calories! I stitched it on light mocha linen with a dk brown shade of Theadworx and used a piece of dk brown fabric for the back and satin cording from my stash for the edging and the bow. 

Night Before Christmas

Birds of a Feather

1998 Just Cross Stitch Special Ornament Issue

Birds of a Feather designs just crack me up. I stitched this one on a scrap of raw linen and used overdyed threads. I plan to use the fabric in the background for the backing. Edging is still a question mark.

  

Festive Redbird

Homespun Elegance

This one I stitched on a scrap of overdyed tan colored linen with overdyed threads. I switched the recommended shade of red to a brighter red to match the little cranberry beads that I substituted for the charted french knots. I'm not sure yet what fabric I'll use to back it but the fabric in the background of the pic is currently at the top of my list.

Once the ornaments are finished and hanging on the tree, I'll take a few pictures and post them here. I have a few more gift finishes to accomplish, shopping to finish, and wrapping to be done before the big day. I just can't believe that Christmas is only two weeks away! Egads, I'd better get busy!

Hope all your plans are falling into place and you are enjoying the season. Thanks for stopping by.

O Christmas Tree...How Lovely Are Your Branches

Our Christmas Tree is up. It's decorated. Let the festivities begin!

Actually, the tree has been up since the day after Thankgiving. The garland, beads and ornaments followed soon after, but I added the icicles this week. We think we liked the tree better without the icicles!

Around the lowest branches, I hang stockings for each of the cats that my husband and I have had since we've been married. Each of the nine stockings have a special name that we hold in our hearts. Here's a pic of the stockings for the four cats we have now.

"The kittie's stockings were hung on the lowest branches with care,

in hope that the kitties would leave them right there.

So far so good, the stockings are still on the tree.

Hope they're still there for St Nick to see."

Yea, I know, I'm clearly not a poet! But a girl can try to entertain herself, can't she? (I'm sorry that you had to be a witness.)

I've learned not to hang dangling types of ornaments (or icicles) at the bottom of the tree, because the cats think that anything hanging on the tree is fair game. The only way that I can keep the little stockings on the tree is by using twist ties to wire them on. I do have to adjust them every now and then but luckily the cats don't seem to bother the tree like they used to.

Hope you are enjoying the holiday festivities!

Couldn't Sleep...

So I got up to check on the cats...

Megan woke up to see what the heck I was doing up so late.

Found Zoe in the bathroom sink.

Zissou was snoozin' on the cat tree.

And Sophie was taking her daily abluctions.

All are safe and sound so back to bed I go, hopefully to sleep.

Blogging can be Fun (and dangerous)!

Catching up on blogs today and came across another fun giveaway. This one on Linen Stitcher's blog. She's giving away this lovely Carriage House Samplings pattern, American Landscape. The deadline is Saturday, November 28. Good luck to you, however I'd really like to win this one, too!

Danger, Danger...Sigh!

Let me tell you what I've been drawn into. It's all Vonna's fault. (If you haven't seen Vonna's blog,

The Twisted Stitcher, please check it out. It is wonderful!) Vonna found a picture of the Prairie Schooler alphabet patterns stitched on one piece of linen, (I believe it was stitched over one on a 28 or 32 ct linen) and she posted a link to the picture on her blog. For everyone to see. And it is mouth watering, finger tingling gorgeous!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8416520@N02/2219248167/sizes/l/

Don't you hate it when you get something in your head and it just won't shut up or go away! I went around in a trance for a couple of days after seeing that picture, so I thought, I'll just see if I have a piece of linen big enough for it. Only had one option sizewise and it was too dark, so then I looked at a few of my favorite ONS's, you know, just to see what was available. All the time telling myself, "I don't need another project, especially a HAP!" (That's a hu-mungo BAP.) Thursday afternoon after running several errands, I decided I needed to pick up those beads and overdyed floss that have been on my stitchy shopping list for a while. So I drove to the nearest needlework shop, which is about an hour away. Do you see where this is going? While there, I happened (yea, right) to browse their fabric selection. Guess what! They had some ivory Jazlyn (a 28 ct evenweave very similar to lugana) which I thought would be great to stitch over one on. And it was so cheap economical compared to linen...

  

I just had to put a few stitches into the Jazlyn that I brought, you know, to see how it would look.

It's a sickness, I tell ya! Sigh...

More Gifties in the Mail

The givaway gift from Jolene's Dip Diddly Designs blog came in the mail today! I felt like it was Christmas!. All I can say is Jolene is a very thoughtful and generous women. This is only one of a whole month of giveaways that she hosted on her blog. I am so honored to be the recipient of La D Da's "A Bird in the Hand is Worth 2 in the Bush" pattern AND the NPI silks to stitch the little darling up. She even included chocolates with beautiful vintage Santa's displayed on the wrappers. Here's a pic:

Of course, I had to try a couple of the chocolates right away. Yummy! I'm saving the wrappers for some future crafty project. They are just too pretty to throw away!

A big THANK YOU to Jolene for her thoughtful generosity ! Jolene, I wish I could thank you in person so I could give you a {{{big hug}}}!(Yes, I'm a hugger!).