Third Time's The Charm!

I had such high hopes when I signed up for the Reindeer Ornament Exchange on the HOE blog. Boy, do I have a saga to share... Innocently enough, I signed up for the exchange in December B.S. (Before School). I said to myself, "Self, this is great. I can get a jump start on it!" Happily, I pulled out some fabric and threads. Before I knew it, I had my entire reindeer stitched.

All I needed, was to finish it... and recipient's name. I was one happy girl! The day I was waiting for arrived: I received an email from the coordinator with the recipient's name and the exchange rules. My happy face dropped :( Not really... just sounded dramatic, lol. No aida. Guess what I stitched my reindeer on? Yep, you guessed it. Aida. It was SO cute, too!

What's a girl to do? Stitch another one, of course! I pulled out a nice shade of green linen. Once again, I happily stitched another one. I still had weeks before I needed to send it out. I was ahead of schedule, despite school starting. Woo Hoo!

Fast forward to the weekend before the mailing date. I sat myself down to make the ornament. Mistake #1 - I cut the fabric too small. Mistake #2 - I cut the dimensions of the cardboard inaccurately. I don't know why my measuring skills went out the window, but they did that day. My confident self said: "Self, you can do this. You can fudge it. Go for it!" So, I tried. Really, I did. By the time I got done with that ornament, I was so disgusted with myself. :( No dramatic statement this time... I really was disgusted.

As much as I didn't want to, I contacted the coordinator of the exchange and explained my story. For the first time ever, I asked for an extension. My logic is this: I wouldn't have wanted to receive an ornament that looked like that, so I did not want to send one out looking like it. Luckily, I was granted the extension. And no, I didn't take a pic of the pathetic ornament. I chucked it in the trash and immediately started stitching a third ornament. Yes, three of the same design for one exchange, lol.

I ended up only being a week late on mailing from beginning stitching to the finished product-an ornament I can be proud to have my name associated with! To add to the drama, it was over a month before the ornament arrived. Without further adieu....

Mistletoe Reindeer
Designer: Daffycat
Fabric: 32ct Hand-Dyed Brown/Tan (manufacturer unknown)
Fibers: Unknown Cotton
Embellishment: Runched Ribbon
Mailed to: Aubree in Canada
P.S. This is my third finished-finish of 2011. Yay :) Of course, I couldn't let the aida ornament go to waste. I made it into a cute ornament also! I count this one as my second finish.