The Journey Continues (even with some stitching)

Hello there.   When last we left tales of my travels we were kinda in St. Louis.

I had put a special request in to visit "the Cathedral" not knowing that St. Louis not only had two, but that both were basilicas.  Silly me.  We visited "the new church" which is covered in mosaics and absolutely beautiful.  Absolutely, I tell you.  And very inspiring for stitching!

From the New Church we hustled to my niece's climbing gym to see her in action --

The girl rocks!   Yes, I might have meant that pun.

From St. Louis, I returned to DC, changed luggage and headed to Richmond for time with the nephews.

Their decorating was done -- there are a couple needlepoint stockings you've seen before on that mantle :)

Possibly my primary duty while with The Nephews is making ornaments for their Grandma (my sister).  Here's the next Dog of Christmas, Jesus (no lie, but the Spanish pronunciation, please....   The first time they took him to the vet ---in a conservative, Bible-belt Southern town-- in the midst of a crowded waiting room the tech screamed "JESUS" like the Christ child was pretty embarrassingly funny.  Possibly it's only funny for those of us who weren't there.).  Jesus is keeping the Medium Nephew (I do them by size -- Large/Dad, Medium/first son, Small/young son).  company while he does his FIRST NEEDLEPOINT!!!!  (That's just the pattern in the pic-- and it was a terrible pattern to try and follow.)

And here we are all done!   Ok, I know it's plastic canvas not needlepoint, but hey, he is only 13!  And.... busting a gut with happiness..... he said to me about a third of the way through, "Aunt Ruth, can we just do these from now on?  I like this."  Heee heeeee I have another convert!  I think next year I'll try a cross stitch and a plastic canvas with him.  

In previous years we have made all sorts of goodies like this bead-covered ball-- 

And the blue and white foam star below --   pictured with a small part of the ornaments I stitched them over the years (gads, I'd forgotten then tree -- it's a plaid and I did every other block in Fuzzy Stuff which when done on jobelan is not what we call joyful. Oh, and I remember a certain amount of praying going on during that all outlined/backstitched poinsettia wreath... I think the first one I did ended up not meeting.  Sigh.). 

This was the first year The Small Nephew got in on the action.  This is him drawing "Grandma's Christmas apple tree with two branches and two apples."  He made Granddad a "red Christmas tree with one branch and a blue bird."  It warmed my little heart to hear that a couple weeks before I arrived when they announced to Small that I was coming for a couple days, Medium told him "You get to make ornaments for Grandma with Aunt Ruth.  It's cool."  Can you feel my smile from there?

My sister and brother-in-law came down for an overnight, and they got to stay in Medium's room.  For the special occasion he got out the NASA quilt my sister made him (he's scared to get it dirty so he only gets it out for special occasions).

And, since I have succeeded at turning Medium and Small into readers (I consider myself in charge of making sure there are future generations of readers as well as stitchers), Small demanded reading time.  So when asked to get "a book to read" came back with this pile --  

A chip off the ole aunt block   :)    :)     :)     :)  

And I can't leave The Newphews' trip without introducing Skip, the world's chillest dog --

Smart as a whip and generally twice as shy of cameras, Skip was unwilling to give up the serendipitous moment when the velvet blanket fell on the floor for him to snuggle in, thus he had no choice but to live with the camera.

Go forth and have an excellent day!

NOTE:  The title did not promise the stitching would be current.  hee hee

Good morning, snow!

This morning we have fluffy white stuff falling from the sky!

That was at 6:45-ish.  Now that it is almost 9am the flakes are a lot bigger and there are a lot more of them.  Lots and lots more of them. [I think the herbs in the planter box may be toast-- -don't you?]   Save for the driving in it part (my poor sister!), it is really cool.

For comparison, yesterday it looked like this:

My American friends, that's your National Christmas Tree.  It is probably undecked today as they were dismantling its compound yesterday morning.    And yesterday's chilly winds did not dissuade the "photo club" at the White House (though it did bring down the numbers considerably)--

Oh, something I never noticed/paid attention to before was this monument in the sidewalk between the White House and the National Christmas Tree.  It is the official Zero Milestone marker set in 1920 and from which all roads in the U.S. were supposed to be measured -- apparently that didn't happen, but we still have the milestone and a remembrance of the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy which went from DC to San Francisco in 1919.

I'm going to break the cool travel-ness here, and shoe-horn some stitching in -- otherwise you might think I was avoiding the issue...... you would be right!

I joined the By the Bay's Serenity Harbor SAL for the year, and for the last few days I've been jealously watching people's progress.  When i was packing I just could not see my way clear to packing this bundle:

That is a badly-lighted (sorry) pic of my floss toss for this.  See-- that's a pretty big bundle to pack.  So I am just going to have to wait until I give up my East Coast fling to get needles in to this one.

Ok, warning,  I am saying this up front:  this is NOT mine.  I merely facilitate the finishing for my friend Judy.

Isn't it pretty?  And we had the perfect shade of velvet in the finishing corral at the shop!  Such miracles do not happen every day!

She did a great job.  I sure would love to claim it as mine!...... especially since the eagle-eyed amongst you will note there are no pictures of my stitching progress since I have very little to show for the last few days.  Oops!

Ok, enough slight of hand,,,,   back to pretty vacation pics.

I was in DC a day before the family and I decamped for an early Christmas in St. Louis with one family bundle.  The first night in St. Loius we headed out to the light display at the Botanical Gardens and it was SPECTACULAR!  Kudos STL!!!!!!

Nope. That is not part of the Christmas lights, but I love Chihuly.

How cool is what I call "the light saber garden?!!"

For the Doctor Who fans... I don't think they meant to do this... or maybe they are fans too who could not resist......

And I leave you with a minor theme of my photos ...  the first pet of the holidays (besides Princess, of course).  Meet Q -- totally mellow and peaceful until you mention the "S" word.  [Squirrel]

Happy Tuesday!

P.S.  In case there is a very observant person out there who pays attention to my sidebar, you will note that in my Reads Allegedly in Process, Stephen King has appeared.  Now, that's not something I EVER imagined happening... ever.  But the 13-year-old nephew gave it to me for Christmas explaining that he remembered us talking about Edgar Allan Poe last year and he understood that King had his roots in Poe so obviously it was the perfect thing for Aunt Ruth.  Gulp.  What's an aunt to do? ---- Suck it up and read, that's what!  lol  Preening proudly that I've "raised" another generation of book people.

Look who's done!!!!!!!!! Whoop Whoooop

Yes, dear friends, there has been a miracle.  The problematic jay is..... drum roll please..... DONE!    Yeehaw the first Badgerish finish of 2015.  And I even got his pic in focus and uploaded within a half hour of completion (I would have been faster if I had not had to stop to call my bank to explain that, no, I was not the person who entered my account password incorrectly repeatedly this morning causing Mr. Bank to lock my online account.   Sigh.  Allegedly all worked out now.  Prayers accepted......)

As long as I'm showing off, I'm going to share some of the DC atmosphere I've been soaking up.  My first or second night here was really foggy cool.  We took a swing into the District to visit "my swoosh" (I consider the Air Force Memorial "mine" and I call it the swoosh.) --

And the Washington Monument.... well, the bottom two-thirds.

I will be back to talk tree later, but I owe Linda a pick of the finished tree.  It's a bad one and there will be others (I Just can't find them right now.) , but I don't want Linda thinking I ignored her.  For the record, that's 9 feet covered with about 750 ornies.  The kid's tree has another 80 or so.  And 39 large ones circle the dining room ceiling.  As I am "the official hooker of Christmas"  (I really need a badge or sash.) I can tell you that it take about 12 hours for your fingers to stop hurting for every 4 hours of hooking you do.

Well I'd better get my fanny to bed.  I know I owe many more pics-- I have a lot of adventures to catch you up on.

Happy stitching, my friends.

Peaceful Holiday Wishes and Gracious Holiday Miracles

As I was selecting pictures for this Christmas Eve post, it struck me how many little holiday happinesses I have already been lucky enough to have.

There was Hanukkah with my Auxiliary Family complete with the unveiling of my friend Jenn's completed Raymond Crawford menorah --  what you can't quite see in the picture below, but I bet you can imagine and smile about is that both of "my" girls, Dahvi and Sophie, have their hands clasped together and held close to their chests because as they ran to see the freshly unpacked candles they called the True Stitcher's Mantra to each other -- "Don't Touch!!!!"

Somewhere I have better pictures of these, but for now this wussy shot will have to do.  They are truly stunning.

I've also had the Happy Geek Moment -- -with my Katie (niece) as she and I poured over the map of Ankh-Morpork which came as an insert in one of my presents to her.  All hail Sir Terry Pratchett!

I mean come on folks, what else besides a holiday miracle would bring a 14-year-old and a none-of-your-business-year-old together for over a half hour to pour over a map of a fictional city looking for favorite locales, people's houses, and streets of notorious repute?!

There was also the blissful hour plus spent learning about blowing glass from Cousin Tom--- who was exceptionally patient with people who knew not of the glass-making process.

And check out some of the glistening miracles he's created---

See that all green swirly ball with the red top in the upper center of the pic?  It is mine now.  Another lucky bit of holiday happiness.

I have even had a little holiday postal joy.  Mary  received in good order and in excellent time the following ornie I made her (one of the secret, unseen projects.... unseen no longer) as part of a holiday exchange with the Stitch Specialists yahoo group.

It is a pattern from Gift of Stitching magazine done in Icing and Herb Garden by Belle Soie with copper-colored beads.

So, see, many miracles and much happiness has come to me, and I wish the same to you and yours.

Peace on Earth and goodwill to all.

and the Adventure Continues.....

to follow on the list of things I've done while holidaying "this" year which yesterday's post stopped in the middle of... :

6. Went on the Christmas tree hunt to Snickers Gap Tree Farm (if you are in Northern VA and need a tree, I highly recommend the folks at Snicker Gap. Beautiful trees and nice cider too!). We were successful --

That's the BIL and Christopher (we named the tree) off to have our freshly cut prize bundled for the car. (That's also my current wallpaper because I just love that picture. It makes me smile.)
It was a hard decision though. I mean look at this--

How do you choose from those beauties? But, in the end we picked a winner and Christopher was ensconsed in the living room (frankly he just took it over) and the BIL did his lighting magic

For the record, apparently there's a rule that lawyers must take calls while decorating Christmas trees so the blue tooth was essential to the lighting process.

7. I got to help decorate the tree. No biggie, right? I mean everyone whose family decs trees does this, right? Oh, you poor soul. You have never experienced my sister's tree.

The 7 trays of ornaments in this picture are only one-half of day one decorating (and that's starting with the really big ornaments). We did 3 days on the tree this year. And we only made it out in 3 days because we skipped 2 boxes of ornaments. Eventually I'll have a finished ornie count and decorated pictures for you, but not today.

8. I entertained my little nephew --

That's a shot of complete concentration while we attempted to set the record for largest yellow pyramid built entirely from Legos at the National Building Museum's Lego play room. We did have some minor discussion about two-thirds of the way through because Aunt Ruth who was the official "Yellow Block Finder" for the development could not find another two block yellow to save her life. There was much consternation and arguing and cajoling (all from him at me), but finally education prevailed. You see I put my social science degree to work and explained the functions and design of Egyptian pyramids and opined that the tan-colored two space block I had found for the far interior of the pyramid would be the perfect "Pharoh's Treasure." That was agreed upon and work continued. Ultimately this solid-- completely solid piece was produced:

It weighs more than my laptop I think. LOL Some poor museum volunteer was going to have to take that all apart later in the day. I wonder what they thought of Phoroh's Treasure. lol
While The Little One completed his grand design, his aunt made towers and played with color concepts

Yup, those are close-ups of my fine work. Impressive, eh?

9. Got stash! Yes, stash! My sister and I hunted down In Stitches (not an easy task if you follow the google directions either. But we made it and she *forced* me to buy:





Yes, Virginia, apparently I needed more stash.... NOT. Hey, should I make these 4 of the requisite 15 Crazy January starts?

10. I saw the Wise Men's way to the baby Jesus illuminated by the light of a giant menorah

Sorry, this made me giggle. In between the cold and the giggling I got a blurry pic.

11. I spent a totally "traditional" Christmas Eve day going to The Copper Fox Distillery, a small Northern Virginia distillery, and learning how they made their single malt scotch. Honest and true, that's what we did for Christmas Eve day--

The Copper Fox in his Christmas best.

The distillery is a small 3 person operation (well 7 if you count the cat, 2 dogs, and the baby) that is producing some absolutely marvelous single malt under the name Wasmund's (the owner). We brought some bottles home and they are absolutely yummy! Go, explore their site, visit the family, and have a lovely libation. And, if you are contemplating a visit but you are thinking to yourself, "Ruth, it sure would be more compelling if there were more attractions in the area.. maybe a museum or something..." I can set you mind at ease. Not only is the countryside the next best thing to a landscape painting, but the Distillery backyard his home to The Decoy Museum--

lol Sorry, I didn't ask for a tour. It was Christmas Eve afternoon and I thought I ought to let them finish wrapping their presents.

12. .... to follow .......

Continuing happy New Year!

P.S. Diane is brilliant! Go check out her take on a theme for 2011 and see if you agree. I left her a comment saying if she started a challenge, I'd be in!!!