On This Eve...

I would like to wish all my blogging friends....

I received word the Christmas mailart I made for Anne finally arrived.  She was extremely thrilled with it.

 

Design: Star Bright Giraffe

Book: 100 Cross-Stitch Ornaments by Carol Siegel

Fabric: 18ct Red Aida

Fibers: DMC, Kreinik Blending Filament

Embellishments: Mill Hill Beads

Design: Penguin Pair

Book: 100 Cross-Stitch Ornaments

Embellishments: White/Gold Flecked Ric Rac,

Gold Glitter Star Button, Snowflake Buttons

It was really fun to create this mailart.  Thanks again, Anne, for doing this exchange with me. :)

Just a note about the penguins... I changed the colors of the hat and scarf to match the ribbon around the giraffe's neck so that they coordinated.

Christmas Wrap Up

Christmas dinner brought 16 family members to my house.  My parents, siblings, and most of my nieces and nephew came.  The oldest niece is 22 and the youngest is three.  I think the little one was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and being in a strange place.

As one of the desserts, I made Midnight Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting. Those cupcakes were so moist and chocolate-y!  I also made a cupcake tower that turned out looking like a Christmas tree.

The Homestead is small and as such, I had to borrow a table and chairs so that everyone had a place to sit when it was time to eat.  The dinner table ended up about 14ft long and took up the entire length of my dining room.

Originally, I had planned on putting paper doilies underneath the candles on the table.  After searching through my craft supplies, I came to the realization I didn't have round doilies!  What's a crafty girl to do?

 

Paper Snowflakes!  Remember making these in school?  I made one for each candle and each one was unique... just like the real thing.  My mom thought they were adorable.

 

In wrapping up Christmas 2013, I'll leave you with more decorations and the cards I received this year:

 

This is a Santa's Workshop music box.  See the player piano type paper?  It plays 16 melodies as this paper rotates throughout the workshop and winds down underneath.  Each room in the workshop is lighted and has animated characters.  It is so cool!

 

This is another animated music box called Welcome Santa.  It plays Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  The tree lights up, the rocking horse rocks and Santa rotates from his bag of gifts to the little girl.  See the photo of the baby in the Christmas frame?  My mom thought it was her great grandson and was asking his 16 year old aunt if that was him.  Finally, I told them both it was my niece (the 16 year old)... even she didn't recognize herself, lol.  Too funny.

 

Does that little face look familiar?  A long time ago, a friend bought this Hamilton Mint ornament for me because it reminded him of Celeste.  I always set it on a hard surface because I'm afraid it'll fall off the tree and break.

 

These three guys spent the holiday season party-ing it up in the living room beneath one of my smaller trees.  Aren't they adorable?

 

 

Remember a while back I blogged about my "first" camera?  My mom asked if I still had the camera.  In anticipation of the holidays, I got out the camera, pack film, and flash bulbs.  After a few tries, I was able to get a good polaroid shot of my parents with that almost 50 year old camera. 

It's a bit overexposed, but I attribute it to my not knowing how to use the dials on the camera properly.

Until next time,

 

Secret Santa and Stashing

Are you ready for Christmas?!?  I've had the past two days off work to finish getting ready for the family celebration at my house.  Aside from making food today, I think I'm ready.

I participated in a Secret Santa exchange at SNS2.  Vickie sent me a wonderful package of goodies:

Thank you, Vickie!

Ever since I saw Heart of America by Little House Needleworks stitched up, it called to me.  Apparently, this is a special edition kit from 2008 and extremely difficult to find. 

When I did see it come up on eBay, prices went upward of $40.  I was finally to acquire it at a reasonable price and am looking forward to stitching it up.  I do believe I have fabric that would be perfect for it!

Until next time...

12 Days of Christmas Exchanges

I hadn't participated in a 12 Days of Christmas Exchange for a couple years, so this year I joined two!

EXCHANGE #1
From Berly at the I-Love-Cross-Stitching group, I received two skeins of Carries Creations floss and a box of Peppermint tea for Days 1-3.  I love that tea, and who couldn't use more floss?!

 

Day 4 - 28ct Evenweave

 

 

Days 5, 6, and 7 - Carries Floss and 32ct Linen

 

 

Day 8 - Skittles and Tea

 

 

Days 9, 10, and 11

 

 

Day 12 - 28ct Linen "Babbling Brook"

 

 

On Christmas Eve, I also received a gift certificate from 123stitch.  Thank you very much, Berly.  I enjoyed all the gifts.

 

EXCHANGE #2
From Greta at the Stitchers Circle group, I received:

Day 1 - Flowers Limited Edition Kit by Lizzie Kate

 

Day 2 - Cardinal Tweet Chart Pack by Just Nan

 

Hmmm... Both make me want to start a new project!! Must.... hold... out!

Day 3 - Crayola Erasable Twistable Colored Pencils

Day 4 - Cute "Peppermint" Soap

 

Day 5 - Main Street Station by LHN and Linen

 

Day 6 - Cardinal Ornament. So Cute!

 

 

Day 7 - Lemon Citrus Hand Soap

Day 8 - Notepads

 

Day 9 - Beads From My Wishlist

 

Day 10 - Snail Tape Measure!

So cute... inches on one side and cm on the other.

Day 11 - A Billion Dollars!

 

Day 12 - Matching Table Runner and Placemats

Thank you for the beautiful gifts, Greta.  I really enjoyed the exchange.

Secret Santa Exchange at Work

I received an email a couple weeks back about the departmental Secret Santa exchange.  Since I started in December a year ago, I missed out on the exchange.  Here's what my Secret Santa "snuck" onto my desk while I was in talking to the boss today...

Day 1 - Orange Green Tea

 

Day 2 - Peanut M&M's and a Glass Tray

 

 

Just so you know... I did get full bag of M&M's, lol.  And no, I didn't eat them all.  I actually put most of them in the bucket I received on Day 1.  I also drank the tea.  Yum!

 

Day 3 - Floral Arrangement Diamonds

 

 

Okay, I do have to say that I am scratching my head over this gift.  We all filled out Secret Santa questionaires before the exchange.  I did not say I'm into flower arranging nor does anything in my cubicle even remotely would elude to it.  (Personally, I think this is a re-gift because the packaging is very scuffed up)

 

Day 4 - Penguin List Pad and Bag of Tea

 

 

 Day 5 - The "Big" Gift



 

On Day 5, we were to buy a $10-15 gift.  I received a vase.  (Yes, to go along with the re-gifted diamonds)  Paris, flowers, vases, birds... none of these were on my Secret Santa questionaire.  It's been an interesting exchange, that's for sure.  The BF asked me, "Did you open *that* and say: What the hell is this?"  LOL (No, I didn't.)

Marvelous Monday Update 12/16/13

Yikes... How can it be that over a month has passed since I last made a blog update.  Alas, I've been busy working out (lost 10lbs so far, Yay!) and trying to get ready for the holidays.

HOLIDAYS
Last weekend, I managed to get up all my Christmas decorations.  Normally, I only put up my two 4ft trees.  However, this year I am hosting the family Christmas so the big tree had to be put up as well as more decorations.  So far, I have 12 family members confirmed and it could be upwards of 18 people total.

 

STITCHY STUFF
I've been focusing the bulk of my stitching time on a mailart piece.  Several months ago, Anne of Dolls Musings and I agreed to do a private exchange for a Christmas mailart.  This is the second private exchange I've done and am pleased that it worked out.  The person I did the first exchange with flaked out on her end, but I digress.  This is what I received from Anne:

I just love it! I had it with me when I visited my parents over the weekend, and even they were intrigued by it. My Dad was so interested that he pulled out the Atlas to see where Anne was from, LOL. Anne has not received hers yet, so I will have to wait to show pics.

Next up is progress on Balloon Glow which is the project I work on during my lunch hour.

Since I haven't worked on Yuku's backstitching for months, I plan on working on that project for a while. I've been itching to start a new project, but no-no-no! I have other things I need to work on first. *slaps hand* No new projects!

As part of their Black Friday sale, JoAnn Fabrics had OttLites for $20 which also included free shipping!  I couldn't pass up a deal like that (especially since I'd been kicking myself for not getting one back in October when they were $24.95).  I really wanted the light green one, but they were already sold out by the time I got up on Black Friday.

Winner!  Winner!  I was a lucky winner of a 12 Days of Christmas celebration at the Stitcher's Village.  From Glendon Place, I received a chart and beautiful floss.

SEWING
I was in a sewing mood a couple weeks back. Inspired by some bags I saw at the PALS retreat, I made a couple of lined project bags. I sent this one to Pam as a birthday gift:

I made this one for myself to hold my work stitching project:

I have some cute cupcake fabric that I want to make another one to keep my home project in.

WORK
My one year anniversary was last week!  Hard to believe it's been a year already.  I know I'm probably still in the "honeymoon" phase, but I have to say that it's the best move I've ever made.  Btw, how long does the honeymoon phase last? 

Those of us who have December anniversaries get to celebrate by having "Breakfast with the President" on Thursday.  I heard through the grapevine that we get gifts!

Until next time....