Our tree, a finish and a RAK

As you can see, Santa is getting his list of the nice and naughty all ready for the big night! Which one will you be on this year?

Our tree is finally up. This year we decided to put it in our rec room however its usual corner has now been occupied by a computer desk. So after much discussion and some moving of furniture it now occupies the corner next to our gas fireplace. Fortunately it's not a real tree so it won't dry out. I love a real tree but it's not practical with us being away for a few days. I don't want my friends to have to look after the tree in addition to the cat.
I'm also posting a few of my favourite ornaments on the tree. Since most of these ornaments are breakable, I've only begun collecting them and displaying them since the boys grew up and left home. The poinsetttias are made of velvet and wired for bending the leaves. They fit over the miniature tree lights and look so pretty when lit! The tree skirt is one that I hooked when my oldest was just a baby. We dug it out of hiding this year. Unfortunately my tree top won't fit the tree since the ceilings are lower in the basement.

As you can see this was a gift from my younger sister Laurie

Laurie also gave me this moose.
Don't you just love his snowshoes?

This is the very first Christmas gift my hubby ever gave me.
I used to figure skate when I was younger.
He found this ornament when we were on our honeymoon.

These two are the newest additions to our tree.

I found a lovely surprise waiting for me in this week's mail. My cousin Sheryl sent me the sweetest RAK. It's a needleminder from Puffin & Company. Being the cat lover that I am I think you can figure out which one it is.

Isn't he/she cute? I'll say it's a female since that's what our kitty is. Thank you so much Sheryl!! You are such a sweetheart!

My Tuesday night group had their Christmas party and gift exchange last week. I tried out a new recipe to take with me..... gingerbread pumpkin trifle. It was awesome and I'll definitely be making this one again!

One of the members or our group likes to make beaded fobs which she then sells. I asked her to make me one of her fobs to go with my Dinky Dyes Oh Canada scissors. She did a fabulous job! I've posted a pic of the little charm as well which is a beaver. The beaver is our national animal although there are some recently who have talked about changing it to a polar bear.

This afternoon I finished another ornie for my collection. This one is Blue Ribbons Designs Red Birds for Peace. I finally finished up the over one stitching on the birds. They're weren't nearly as bad as I expected. The final finishing won't be done until the new year.

That about wraps things up for now (no pun intended!). I hope to have one final post before Christmas with a picture of my granddaughters' ornaments. I'm currently working on their finishing. I hope in all the craziness of the season that you each  can take a little time for yourself to relax and reflect. Just in case I don't have time for that next post, I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a Happy New Year!

Exchange received

A couple of months ago, Patty inquired as to whether anyone was interested in doing an exchange with her. I replied that I'd love to and so for the past several weeks I've been working on this little guy.

Winter Joy by SamSarah Design Studio,
32ct Sassy's Sugared Cocoa
Just Cross Stitch Ornament Preview Issue 2007

I had so much fun working on this one! Patty is a fan of snowmen so I also tucked in a few other little goodies with the ornament. You can sneak a peek at them on Patty's blog. I'm so glad that she was pleased with everything.

In addition to the exchange, I've been trying to get the M Designs name trees finished for my granddaughters. Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog will know that I have been stitching these over the course of the past two years. I kept telling myself that the girls were still young and there was plenty of time to get them done. Well, the girls are now 6 and 5 and their Dad recently asked me if I had ever finished them. Time to get moving! The stitching on Oceanne's tree is done and Summer's is almost there! These are my first attempts at over one stitching.

M Designs Name Tree - Oceanne

Oceanne

M Designs Name Tree - Summer

Once the stitching is complete, I still have to add the beads and treasures to both trees and then do the final finishing. Knowing me, that will take another week's work (or more!) before they are completely done. I'm determined that they'll receive these this year!

After my recent ornament finishing spree, I started another. This one is a Blue Ribbon Design called Red Birds for Peace. It was stitching up pretty quickly until I realized that the cardinals in this design are stitched over one. So it will wait until the name trees are completed before I tackle it.

I'm heading into the city shortly for my weekly Tuesday group. I skipped out last week because I just didn't feel like doing the drive into town. Tonight I'll concentrate on my JB Christmas which has been neglected lately. After all, I can't work on the over one stitching there without the use of my trusty magnifying lamp (which at the moment is still minus the lamp portion).

My visit with my granddaughters on Saturday was so much fun! I haven't had time to upload the pictures yet so I'll have one or two on my next post. I haven't been home a whole lot lately but when I have, I've been trying to do a little decorating for Christmas. Our tree won't be up for a little while yet but I have lots of other decor to spread around. Hopefully I'll have a few pics of those next post as well. Tomorrow I'll be spending a good part of the day in the dentist chair getting an implant. Wish me luck!