Greetings

Sending love and blessings to my buddies out there in Bloggerland. I haven't forgotten about you, things have just been crazy for me since the middle of November and I haven't had much energy or will to blog. Hopefully my mojo will return in January and if it does, I'll be back then and post the things I've finished the past month or so.

Wishing you all the best for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year...
xoxo

stitching too!

So now the cake is gone (anyone make it or have plans to?), I have some stitching to share....



From the Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel book



the Joyeux Noel reproduction sampler (my first finish dated 2010!)



stitched on 30 ct. Lucky Penny linen with the called for Gentle Arts, Weeks Dye Works and Crescent Colours overdyed threads. I did sub DMC for the CC Petite Maison, as the skein I had just blended right into the fabric and couldn't be seen.



What a joy this one was....well, except for that four-sided stitch, could've lived without that as it took me FORever to do! But, it's a neat look for a change and it's over and done with, so I'll quit whining about it ;-)

Oh, and I did finally finish stitching that last stocking from the BBD 'Tis Halloween book, called Enchantment...



on this one I used DMC 3371 for the CC Blackbird and DMC 3856 for the CC Copper Penny. Come to think of it, I never used Blackbird for any of the other stockings either, but the DMC instead. It made me happy to use what I had on hand :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope y'all have a great week!

have yourself...

...a merry little Christmas!



let your heart be light....



from now on



our troubles will be out of sight....



Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away



Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years
We all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star
Upon the highest bough
And have yourself
A merry little Christmas right now

love letters

This little stitch from the new Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel book was so much fun to stitch, I did it twice :-)




Once for me, and one for a friend!
I do believe it's my favorite thing I've stitched in all of 2009!
I used the recommended threads (except for using CC Pea Pod instead of the Putty called for) on the called for fabric, which is 32 count PTP Dill. Good stuff, wonderful stitch. My plan is to have these made into the little tokens box like pictured in the book :-)

Jingle, Sparkle, Joy!

My friend Patti stitched this ornament for me last year (a freebie design from Deborah) but because we had just moved, I was too frazzled to post about it...




It came attached to a really pretty wreath, but I had to take it off to get a decent picture.
(Santa, please bring me a new camera for Christmas!)

I really love it!

Just decorating today and thought I'd share!

Christmastime is here

Oh my. That last post was written days ago and then was promptly forgotten about. I think I was considering adding something to it but got carried away with holiday preparations and forgot what that something was. Pretty much the whole state of my life right now.

The other day, I had a whole list of stuff to get done. For whatever reason I was rushing myself along...no one standing over me saying "hurry A, hurry"...just me, myself and I, happily buzzing along. Putting on a coat of face paint, then go to brush my hair real quick and JAB!! Right below my eyebrow with my thumbnail. Yes, I almost poked my own eye out. It hurt, but since I was in a rush, didn't pay that much attention to it, and par for the course, forgot about doing it. Ran a bunch of errands, talked with people, etc. Then, later on as I was driving, noticed this throbbing pain over my left eye. pull the visor down and look...imagine my surprise to see part of my skin hanging off and blood! Hmm...maybe people were too scared to ask me what happened...anyway, cleaned it off and then had a lovely scab there for days. I decided right then and there to slow myself down...getting everything done... definitely not worth poking your eye out!

and with that, some images from the tree and around the house:










Merry Christmas to my sweet friends out there. Thank you all so much for your presence in my life. Peace to you. And love too.

sugar rush

These little beauties from Sprinkles made their way into our home today:



Just in time! We need more sugar around here, that's for sure!



Done wrapping, except for those two Butter Bells there. Now to start on the holiday baking. Oh boy. Haven't started yet, so no pics....a coworker is coming over tomorrow evening so I can show her how to make some stuff. I love that....that she wants me to help her!

So meanwhile, some more random shots from around the house.

Remember when I promised pics of the new tables? Well, here's one for ya.



And a close up:



I'm never really sure what exactly I'm supposed to be displaying, or how, really. Had it all worked out alright but then needed to decorate for Christmas, so whatever.

One of my favorite ornaments of all time. More on that later :)

hugs

Today I felt like hugging a total stranger in Hobby Lobby. My friend and I were standing there waiting to check out, the lines were long so they opened another checkout. One lady offered to let another go before her but the second woman declined and said she was just as happy to stand there and wait as anything.....she was just so nice, everything about her. So they started talking a little and the whole thing made me well up inside.

Cause I've been having a big ol' pity party for myself and down in the dumps because my back is hurting worse than ever with the weather being all crazy and all and then work has been hairy too, which is always the case this time of year.

Last week was particularly interesting because two grown people got into a HUGE screaming match over a chair.

Yes, a chair. A man asked if he could have it since no one was sitting in it and the woman who was asked said no, take that one over there. And so it began. LOUD yelling. LOUD cursing. Everyone in the building stopping to watch them. The man then running up to tell me about it, like I could make the grown woman behave, like I'm the "mommy" of them all. I thought the man was going to haul off and hit her and so did she, she even said, "don't you touch me, I'll call the cops". But of course, our off duty officer (who is very highly paid by our organization) didn't show up that night.

Anyway, all that to say...sometimes our customers are real stinkers.

And my back hurts so bad I feel the need to cry and cry hard over it. Such a whiny baby...

And then you see people being kind to each other in a store and it makes you want to hug them and praise them for being so nice to each other.

I seriously debated asking the one gal if I could hug her.

But I didn't.

Should have though, don't you think? I really needed a hug anyway.


So anyway, here are some random pictures. I was too tired to get up off the couch to take these, so the views you see are from there.

Our totally 80's Christmas stockings, although I think a couple of them were done in the early 90s'. I can vividly remember being in the craft store, buying these kits, picking each one out as I thought they matched the person they were to be stitched for. Pretty sure they weren't all bought at once though, we were too poor at the time, for that.



You can see in that pic that our house is still a jumbled up mess. Look at that stack of Christmas books on the right that I pulled out. Most of them are Mary Engelbreit.

And here's a shot of the tree, again from the couch, excuse the lamp:



And another:



must've gotten up for this one, (I promise to try and get better pics of the whole thing before Christmas is over).



And my little elf pug:



when those velvet ears are upon you, you're not too inclined to move around much ;)
Plus, he's got Pug Hugs. And kisses.

misc.

Just a bunch of random things.

I made these sausage balls (just like every year at Christmas time):



1 pkg Jimmy Dean hot sausage
8 oz shredded smoked cheddar cheese
2 cups Bisquick

Mash it all together with hands shape into balls and bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes.

And finished this:



Star Bright Snowman by Ewe & Eye & Friends
Stitched over two on 32 ct. Tapestry Teal by Lakeside with one strand Anchor.



And we had the sinful dessert, which was really good, according to my family. But I don't eat many things containing pumpkin, so I can't vouch for it. I gave some of it to my friend Patti, for her and her hubby to eat later that day, didn't hear anything back about it, so who knows if it's good or not.



Here's the recipe anyway:

1 16 oz can pumpkin
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
2 sticks melted butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups Cool Whip

Mix together can of pumpkin and evaporated milk; add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch dish. Top with cake mix (crumble dry mix over it all) and pecans. Pour butter over top. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

While it cools, mix together in medium bowl, the cream cheese and powdered sugar until combined. Fold in Cool Whip. Smooth over cooled cake, top with more pecans if you want.

And speaking of my friend Patti, look at the ornament she made me for Christmas:



Isn't it adorable? And she also made this project bag, which I managed to talk her out of:



The little button has a snap underneath it, so you can change the card on the front that has your project info on it. Isn't it cool? I love it!

Got our Christmas cards addressed and mailed out. It took me almost 6 hours. We haven't received even ONE yet and I have to wonder, if we didn't mail any, would we even get any in the first place. Very time consuming and expensive these days.

Tree is up. This year it has mostly Mary Engelbreit ornaments on it and the ones that aren't are either red or have a whimsical feel. It had to be a shiny and bright tree. Oh, how I wish we had some of the old Shiny Brite ornaments for it! We're tired of most of the old stuff we have and just boxed it up for the kids to have someday when they're moved out or whatever.

My little blog has almost reached 100 posts. And in the past few months has had over 10,000 hits. Can anyone believe that? You'd never guess it, I think. Just who are all these people anyway? Surely whatever I'm posting about here is just not that interesting!