A Suggestion, Stitching, and the Continuation of Christmas

First things first -- do you have stitched pieces waiting to become something? Did you have barren tree branches this holiday because you have a showbox of ornaments waiting for finishing? Got a hanger/drawer/box of pieces waiting to be framed, boxed, or pillowed? Join the brilliant Diane and her growing legion of stitching friends who has started a finishing society at the POSSIBILITIES blog. Come on, you know you want to join the fun. Besides, all you folks in the Crazy January Challenge and the UFO stitching challenge will really need the support of the get-it-the-heck-out-of-the-dresser/closet/box bunch. Aw, come on. You know you want to.

After a day spent working at my LNS, I can happily report that I have my first finish of 2011--

I still need to work out sewing the suede up, but at least I have completed the stitching bit on my little needlepoint bookmark. I started it last year and it stalled at the cone stage because I couldn't decide the perfect color. The ice cream is Flair with brown beads. The cone and background are DMC floss. My mom was a big fan of mint-chocolate chip ice cream (except at Christmas when there would be peppermint stick ice cream) and so this bookmark just called to me. I'm not sure what books a beaded bookmark would be good in, but there it is.

After getting over the rush of finishing something yesterday, I picked back up another little needlpoint that had been waiting for me to remember it --

Mr. Moose is in Fabulous Fur, his antlers are Petit Very Velvet, the background so far is DMC floss.

I even got the courage up to tackle a little more on ny NYC cube ornie--

I finished the flames, but got bored before moving on to the background and/or outlining the bases of the flames.

Once home from the shop I pulled out Catherine -

Some over-1 and another row got completed. If I didn't need sleep I would have made it through the rest of that green row before I gave in, but instead I downloaded pics and worked on transferring them to a flash drive for you. Just for you. No one else. Feeling honored yet? lol

Oh, and despite my great regard for you, in the rush of craziness at Christmas, not only did I never did finish any ornies for hanging/gifting, but I didn't even show you. Here's what I managed in the last week before Christmas --




Now, back to D.C. and the belated coverage of the Christmas Adventures of a lazy stitcher. I believe we left off on #12...

12. I learned that some dogs are very polite --

Princess worked out exactly where her present was and waited patiently for someone to unwrap it for her. Honest to pete. And for at least a week after she'd check that exact spot periodically to see if the tree had grown another bone for her.

13. I also learned over the course of two very long afternoons that a 9-year-old boy can be VERY patient when he wants to be.

That's a very big pottery project and a very small brush... and we had to put on 3-4 coats of pait with that very small brush. Six hours in and my dear sister can expect another 6-9 hours of pottery painting adventures before it will be declared complete.

14. Christopher was the absolutely perfect tree -- great chape, great hanging braches, and even without putting all the usual ornies on him, he still looks lovely--


15. It is sooooo cool to be the aunt who passes on the joy of reading --

That's in the midst of present opening -- we had to stop and review our new books one by one. Heee heee.

16. Every geek needs a Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter--

I got one too. and I'm damn proud of it.

17. The National Christmas Tree was especially pretty this year

Yup, that's the White House in the background.

18. The Udvar-Hazy is amazing!


19. Arlington is forever awe-inspiring. [We went to visit our Great Uncle Ellis.]


They go on forever ...


Possibly my favorite picture of the entire holiday --


20. My BIL can be very creative--

He took out left-over star fruit and decorated a tree for my lunch plate. Cute, eh?

21. Old traditions are wonderful -- this is the BIL's family gum drop tree

I did my best to defloiate it over the holidays.

22. New traditions are cool too --

My BIL turned into Martha Stewart one day. He made sticky buns from scratch, toffee sauce for said buns, and the above -- peppermint marshmallows. I have declared (not that anyone listens) that he should always make these marshmallows for one of his offerings at the annual Bake-Off. I hope that next year I can report again on their subtle yumminess.

23.... another day.

Happy stitching to you all.