Mother's Tree muffin top

I know this isn't much to show, but I feel like after about a week and many many hours of stitching nothing but one color I ought to be entitled to show a progress pic, no? I think it is looking good, and maybe next time it'll be more fun to work on cause I'll move down the trunk of the tree instead of just filling in stitch after stitch in a huge block of color. That tree is just never-ending it seems.

Now I think I'll try to get in a bit of progress on Angel of Summer also by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. I confess it isn't one of my favorite projects, but it is for my mom, who really does appreciate my stitching, so I feel compelled to continue on with it. I'm going to work on it until New Year's day. I haven't decided for sure, yet, but I'm toying with the idea of starting "Stone Roses" on Jan. 1. I didn't start anything last year, and haven't had a new start in a long time, since before I finished Silkwood Manor anyway. I think I'm due a new start, but I have a tendency to feel overwhelmed if I have too many things going at once, so we'll see what I decide.

As for Christmas, it was a good but unremarkable year. We are fortunate and thankful, and really that is about all I can think to say about it. Hope your Christmas was merry too! :)

Because I will not be defeated! :)

Okay, I admit that puffy paint isn't the most glamorous of solutions, but it worked. Mostly. There is still a bit of sag on the side that says "Christmas" but when it is hanging properly that is hardly noticable at all. I would much have preferred to finish it off with delicate invisible stitches - but since that proved to be impossible (at least for me) the puffy paint hides my hack job quite well and now I'm at least not embarrassed to put the thing on my tree or admit I made it. :)

Mery Christmas house ornament

This is Merry Little House by Thea Duck of The Victoria Sampler. Great pattern, lovely little house ornament. BUT, the finishing was really tough. I admit to doing it my own way, so maybe that was part of it. The directions said to mount each piece onto mat board and then attach together, but I attached them without doing that and then put cardboard inside along each side and filled with rice rather than mount each piece. That seemed to work out fine and I liked the effect of having a tighter seam along each side that way. However, I reverted back to "following directions" for attaching the roof, and well, it got ugly. There was just no way to delicately stitch the roof piece down without it showing and you can see I just got frustrated and got it done in the end and it looks like crap. I was going to give it as a gift, but I'm going to have to keep it for my own tree now, cause I'd be to embarrassed of the hack job on the roof. *sigh*

So all you stitchers out there that compiment my finishing skills - see I suck sometimes too. LOL I think I'll work on Mother's Tree next as it has been awhile since I worked on it and it won't require to drag all my stitching stuff out of the closet its packed into for all the showings we've been having!

On the house front, the showings keep coming and coming. Although our realtor warned us to expect a slow down for the holidays things have only continued to pick up - 3 showings just this weekend. The feedback we are getting is almost all positive - but we keep hearing over and over that people just started looking and want to see a few more houses before they make a decision - so no offers yet. We are hopeful it'll happen soon though.

More Alhambra Garden progress

I finished the top triangle motif and began working around the corner of the design. A fair bit of progress, but then I always wish it was more. I could press on, but the Christmas ornaments are finally starting to call to me now that we've finally put up our tree.



Hopefully I'll have a finished ornament or two to show off for my next post.

They are Coming out of the Woodwork!

I'm sure the now lower mortgage rates can take the credit, but suddenly there has been a flurry of showings for our house. Until last Tuesday we were averaging about 1 showing per week. We've had FOUR in the last 8 days! TWO of them are today. Combine that with all the snow we've been getting and I'm sooo tired from clearing snow and cleaning house.

I have been trying to continue to get a bit of stitching in on Alhambra Garden, and I've made a modest amount of progress, but not nearly as much as I would like to see after a week or so's work! I'm going to try to get in a bit more before taking a progress pic and moving on to something else.

Ah well, I'll gladly give up a little stitching time if it means we have a SOLD house in the near future! Cross your fingers for an offer for us -k?

Scissor Pocket

I've had this as a travel project for a long time and finally decided to just finish it up. It is Alyssum Scissor Pocket by Cats Whiskers. It is a little lighter in person than it is showing up on my monitor (damn camera!)

Paying it Forward

I've never done one of these before, but always thought they looked fun and interesting. Now that I find myself with several smalls I'd like to make up, I thought this would be a good time to participate in one. I responded to Susan's blog post, so now I'm asking for anyone who'd like to receive from me. If you are not familiar with PIF, check out this entry on Susan's blog.

So the first three people to respond to this post will receive a small crafted item (I'll tell you right now it will be stitching!) from me within the next 12 months. In return you post a similiar offer on your blog.