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.

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!!!

Galavanting to 2011

Anyone know how it got to be 2011? Where did 2007 go?--- I so can't even get to worrying about '08, '09, and '10 yet! Sheesh.

Let's hit the needled highlights and then go back for some leisurely touring shall we?

I am Christmasing in DC and thus delivered The Dreaded Stockings:
First, the BIL's. You've seen it before, but it has been a while --


Now the Sister's (aka The Truly Dreaded)--

You have to understand that I learned something very, very important about myself while doing this particular stocking: I don't do random well. The whole *#(&$#$^&#@ tree is random long and short stitches. I hated and therefore dreaded every bit of working on those long-and-shorts. I have this thing about wanting it to look authentic (ie. tree-like) so it seemed to me that every stitch of Silk and Ivory (the only saving grace about the tree is it is all in Silk and Ivory) seemed somehow to be untree-ish. I even ***looked forward*** to stitching Santa's suit in Very Velvet more than working on the tree, and that's saying a lot! All things considered though, with the passage of a couple months since completion, it was a fun project. I got a decent amount of different stitches in (and some old faves like the hesitation stitch) and used a lot of fibers I liked -- the aforementioned Silk and Ivory, a really nice fine merino wool that was the entirity of the carpet, lots of Fyre Works (they really need a better texture for their hologram ones -- that's stuff is nasty to work with), and Sprinkles (which everyone in my shop hates but me.... good! It's mine, all mine!) to name a few.

Originally I thought the walls would be a pale peach, but the muse (and color realities) took a mint green (Splendor Silk) turn --

And, yes, Virginia, those are French knots in Santa's beard. Lovely aren't they? Their loveliness is due to the simple fact that I did not do them. My dear friend, Jennifer, finally allowed herself to be pestered into it. And despite the pestering, they are absolutely wonderful. I keep telling her she could lease herself out for French knotting and she keeps replying... well, I can't actually say what she tells me to do. Sorry, I don't know what it is; usually Jenn's such a nice, amenable person.

I did my own French knots in the mane and tail. Let me tell you, if you want to feel smugly proud of your French knotting and you have a place where you need randomized, irregular, shinny knots, I highly recommend Flair. Oh I just loved knotting in Flair.

My other current stitching affair is a group gift with my stitching buddy Judy which we hope to have finished up soon:

That's Sampler House's "Catherine's Sampler." Whie I have enjoyed working on this thus far I have a caveat for those who have it in their stash or are thinking about getting it: That picture on the pattern of the finished piece bears no resemblance whatsoever color-wise to the actual colors called for. I actually took a few years to buy this pattern because the colors as pictured were so hideious as to hide the piece as a whole. Turns out the colors called for as so drastically different that I actually pulled all new colors for this version. Most of what you see in the picture is DMC or Anchor, the gold fluer de lis-ish flowers are Sampler Threads (Gold something-or-other) and the pomegranates are Belle Soie (Cranberry, I think).

Aside from a certain lack of stitching, on the holiday front I have:
1. Had a white Christmas


2. Been extremely frustrated developing into downright pissy

This was when the computers were (I considered at the time) 50% working (I should have thoght of it as 75% working). They went through a brief period of full workability and then crashed back to 50% when the office machine decided it had a hard drive fault and IT and I couldn't see eye-to-eye on long-distance assistance.

3. Gotten to attend my first ever Greater Capitol Region Bake-Off. A tradition at my sister's house. The first two offerings are her work --

Her new try for this year a peppermint-flavored sugar cookie with a white chocolate and pepermint candy dip. In a word, fiddily. But, very popular with the squirrel on the balcony where the cut cookies had to sit on sheets to freeze.

Her traditional cranberry bread with gum drop decoration.
I did my balls. My goal was to stay out of the oven on bake-off day so I did a range of "rum" balls.

The darkest are Bailey's with dark cholocate cocoa and chocolate shortbread as a base rolled in dark cocoa and pecans.
The medium colored ones are also with a base of chocolate shortbread, but are kalua with milk chocolate cocoa rolled in powdered sugar and cocoa.
The light ones are regular shortbread with orange liquer rolled in powdered sugar.
I have to say that overall last year's lemoncello version of balls are still my favorite.

4. Had the opportunity to meet the Alexandria Fire Department--

Seems the neighbor was making cinnamon-sugared pita chips for a party the next day and her oven caught fire. All was fine. The oven sensed the fire and sealed itself. But we had 5 fire trucks of personnel milling about the street. No one's exactly certain how the fire got started since there was nothing in the oven at the time, and I failed to get the story on how it actually got put out. Sorry.

5. Froze while watching the lunar eclipse --

BIL doing his best to capture an image.

Sister and the corner of yours truly trying our best to stay warm on the windy 4th floor deck at 3am. Yeah, it was really, really cold.

6. wll have to be later because I'm going to be late for this mornings art lectures at the National Gallery ---- I love educational vacationing.

Happy 2011 to all and to all a good morning!

2010 Stitching Accomplishments

Even though I know I'm missing some, it's still paltry --

1. beaded backstitched tree ornie
2. ST 2010 JCS ornie
3. Scandanavian deer ornie
4. LK tiny tree ornie
5. Christmas tree needlepoint stocking
6. Indian Christmas needlepoint ornie?
7. Diane's beaded butterfly 5/20
8. Montreal fleur de lis needlepoint 6/8
9. F&S round 18 for LennaV -- 4/17
10. stocking mouse ornie -- 1/24
11. SB Fa La La 1/22
12. SB Tiny America (the dang button) 1/22
13. needlepoint whiskey belt -- 1/16
14. Calder Triceratops -- 1/11

That's it? How sad! Here's to 2011 being much more accomplishful !!!

2010 Reading

Here's the pathetic list for 2010:

Books:
1. Terry Pratchett -- Monstrous Regiment (1/11)
2. Jeffrey Toobin -- The Nie: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (1/31)
3. Poul Anderson -- Three Hearts Three Lions (1/31)
4. Jim Murphy -- Blizzard: The Storm that Changed America (2/4)
5. Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes volume 1 (2/15)
6. Neil Gaiman -- Odd and the Frost Giants (2/16)
7. James Gleick -- Isaac Newton (3/3)
8. Lois McMaster Bujold -- The Curse of Chalion (3/21)
9. Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Crooked Man (4/14)
10. Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes v.2 (4/17)
11. Lois McMaster Bujold -- Paladin of Souls
12. Charles Cerami -- Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's: Three Men, five Great Wines, and the Evening that Changed America (6/12)
13. Brian Jacques -- Redwall
14. Arthur Conan Doyle -- Adventures of Sherlock Homes v.3 (6/12)
15. Lois McMaster Bujold -- The Hallowed Hunt 6/23
16. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -- Good Omens (7/3)
17. Jasper Fforde -- Shades of Grey (7/15)
18. 39 Clues book 1
19. Lois McMaster Bujold -- Mirror Dance
20. Lois McMaster Bujold -- Komarr
21. Neil Gaiman -- The Graveyard Book
22. Lois McMaster Bujold -- The Vor Game
23. Lois McMaster Bujold -- A Civil Campaign

Shorts:


• 24. Paul Di Filippo -- "Providence" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3
• 23. John Meaney -- "Necroflux Day" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3
• 22. Stephen Baxter -- "Artifacts" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3
• 21. Alastair Reynolds -- "The Fixation" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3
• 20. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "Silver Blaze" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II (4/17)
• 19. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Five Orange Pips" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II (4/17)
• 18. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" in The Advetures of Sherlock Holmes II (4/16)
• 17. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Scandal in Bohemia" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II (4/15)
• 16. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Read-Headed League" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes v.1 (2/15)
• 15. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Copper Beeches" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes v.1 (2/15)
• 14. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Stock-Broker's Clerk" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes v.1 (2/15)
• 13. Arthur Conan Doyle -- "The Speckled Band" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holms v.1 (2/12)
• 12. Alastair Reynolds -- "The Fixation" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3 (2/9)
• 11. Jack Skillingstead -- "Rescue Mission" in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction v.3 (2/3)
• 10. Ken MacLeod -- "Undead Again" in Futures from Nature (2/2)
• 9. Syne Mitchell -- "Oscar Night, 2054" in Futures from Nature (2/2)
• 8. Vernor Vinge -- "Win a Nobel Prize!" in Futures from Nature (2/2)
• 7. Stephen Baxter -- "People Came from Earth" in Moon Shots (2/2)
• 6. J. Casti, et al -- "A Concrete Example" in Futures from Nature (2/1)
• 5. Tobias S. Buckell -- "Toy Planes" in Futures from Nature (2/1)
• 4. David Berreby -- "The Punishment Fits the Crime" in Futures from Nature (2/1)
• 3. Lucy Bergman -- "Damned If You Don't" in Futures from Nature (2/1)
• 2. Lord Dunsany -- "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles" in The Wizards of Odd (1/31)
• 1. Terry Pratchett -- "Theatre of Cruelty" in The Wizards of Odd (1/31)

Hereby resolved: In 2011, I shall do better!

I might be nuts

Yes, I am safely arrived in DC. But I am not abed yet and I will be getting up in 3.5 hous for the lunar eclipse, I can't promise to be on the live chat because I'm not certain how lively I'll be. Regardless, I WILL see you all soon.

Best wishes wherever you are,
Waiting-for-Promised-Christmas-Eve Snow in VA.

P.S. The Alexandria fire department has a good response time for house fires even on tiny, private streets. It was too cold to report how handsome they might have been, but hopefully the pictures of their group prayer huddle will turn out well enough for me to share.