A Blogging Honor

What a pleasant surprise for a dreary Tuesday morning -- my blog has been awarded a Liebster Award by Melody at The Stitching Life!  It's great to know that other people are reading and enjoying what my blog has to offer.  Thank you so much, Melody!

Now, as part of accepting this award, it's my duty to pass this award along to five other blogs that I read.  Here are the rules:

1. You must publically thank the person who awarded it to you. 

2. Paste the Liebster Award on your blog. 

3. Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave them each a comment on their blogs letting them know of their honor.

 

That's easy.  I read a lot of interesting and entertaining blogs that offer stitching information and inspiration.  My picks are:

 

The Hoopless Stitcher 

 

Blue Star Stitcher 

 

Melanie The WIP Slayer 

 

All This & A Bag Of Chips Too 

 

The Southpaw Stitcher

I'm very happy to be doing this for other bloggers.  There are many blogs that I enjoy and I wish that I could nominate more!

 

A Surprise Finish

As in, I'm surprised that I actually finished something.  Ha ha.  I wanted to stitch a little something for Christmas and searched the stash for the perfect thing.  There I found "Peppermint Twist" by Little House Needleworks.  As I looked through my fabric supply, I found a bag with a label on it that said "ornament fabrics".  It's not my writing.  So apparently sometime in the past, I purchased an assortment of pretty fabrics in sizes suitable for ornaments.  Genius!  And here's what I accomplished.

A sweet little finish, if I may say so myself.  In my humble opinion, though, I don't think it needs the candy cane button.  Oh, it's a cute little button, but this pretty little design does all right by itself.  I'll sharpen my finishing skills and attempt to finish it in time to hang on this year's Christmas tree.

I'm also in the process of finishing "Joy" by LHN.  I've already stitched it, ahem, last year, but am now creating a door hanger out of it.  This one will be featured in a future post. 

I love this time of year.  The Christmas season, in many ways, begins on Thanksgiving.  We traveled over the river (not sure which one, but there was definitely a river) and through the woods to Hiawassee in the North Georgia Mountains.  What a wonderful day spent with family!  While walking one of the many dogs present that day, I noticed that the sun was shining on part of the mountains and lake and ran in to get my camera.  I think I captured the beauty of it.

Did I mention how thankful I am for my followers?  I blog for fun, so it's just icing on the cake to get new followers and receive such encouraging and fun comments.  Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. 

Don't forget to come back to see what I did with that door hanger! 

A Thankful Stitcher

Blog Hop question #12 is a timely one:

When it comes to the stitching part of your life, what are you most thankful for?

Great question!  I am very thankful for this wonderful hobby for many reasons.  It's a satisfying creative outlet that lets me play with colors as much as that Crayola 64 color box did when I was a kid.  I am constantly creating works of art, and what a joy it is to give something that I stitched as a gift.

Other bloggers mentioned their husbands.  I, too, am thankful that my husband is fully supportive of cross stitch.  Never once has he nagged or complained after one of my stash acquisitions.  He's generous with compliments and often asks me "Whacha building?" when I'm stitching.

Regarding practical matters, cross stitch is a relatively inexpensive hobby.  Yes, I am fully aware that it can get expensive.  But this is one pastime in which costs can be kept down because of the options we have when choosing fabric and floss.

I am ever so thankful that through cross stitch I can connect with some of the best people around.  It is a hobby that my sister Sheila and I have in common (we do seem to have a lot in common).  And through cross stitch I have made some great friends.  Our stitch group, Sisters In Stitches, has become a constant in my life and I cherish my friendship with these ladies.  Cross stitch brings us together once a month.  It is something we really look forward to.  I also have stitching friends in different states who I have met through stitch camps, Facebook and blogging.  What can be better?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my stitching friends out there.  I hope you find as much joy in stitching as I do.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

November TUSAL - Patriotic Mr. Peanut

Uh-oh, did I miss TUSAL by one day?  Sorry for my lateness!  And you know what they say about being late.  Better late than never, especially when Mr. Peanut is particularly patriotic.  This past month, a LOT went into that ort jar!  You can find out more about TUSAL on Daffycat's blog.

Am I the only one who has a name for her ort jar? 

A Finish....And A Finish

It's rare for me to have two finishes in one week, but it indeed happened.  The first one is "Folk Eggs" by Prairie Schooler.  I actually got it done in time for (next) Easter!  I'd like to frame it in a whitewash painted frame.  What do you think?

The next one is a little different finish -- not of the cross stitch kind.  It's my London scrapbook.  I wanted to get it done before Matt came home for Christmas.  So I made my goal and am happy.  It contains such good memories of our trip of a lifetime.  Not fancy, nor is it particularly creative, but it's all there nice and neat.

These aren't the only pages.  I just photographed a sampling to give you an idea.  This scrapbook just makes me happy.  Thank you to the experienced scrapbookers who gave me advice and encouragement!

Our last Sisters In Stitches get together for 2012 happened last Saturday at Thea's house.  Once again, we were made to feel very comfortable and welcome as we stitched to our hearts' content.  Delicious soups were served by Thea and Laurie, and Marti brought a yummy coconut cake.  Our group is looking for a central location to have our stitch days, but it's been nice to visit each others' homes in the meantime.  We'll reconvene in January.  I'll make it a New Year's resolution to take pictures of our Stitch Days to share here.  I feel so lucky to have this group of friends.

I ran across the cutest Thanksgiving freebie generously provided by The Primitive Hare.  It's so adorable that I'm tempted to start it right away!  You can find it at The Primitive Hare's blog.  Have fun!

Having finished another stitching project, I thought it was time to start a new one.  Well, really two!  I'll post my progress with those next time. 

Welcome to my new followers!  And thank you, everyone, who took the time to make comments.  I enjoy each and every one!

Unusual Stitch Stuff? Blog Hop #11

Our current Blog Hop topic asks if we own any unusual stash:

What has been your most unusual or most interesting stash acquisition to date?

I've thought and thought about this.  And then even looked through my stash a little while doing a much-needed craft room cleaning.  Here's what I came up with:  nothing.  Nope, not a single unusual, weird, uncommon, rare, strange, or bizarre stitching acquisition.  That is not to say that I don't like my stash -- I do! I think I've acquired quite a bit of very nice charts, fabrics, floss and misc.  But not a single thing that I would categorize as unusual or interesting.  Except maybe the amount of stash that I have.  Now that's interesting.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.