a little bit of Christmas

It's been so much fun visiting your blogs and seeing all the beautiful stitching, and trees and decorations for the holidays. I thought I would share a couple of photos from our house. If you click on the photos you can get a better look.

This is our tree. It's a little bit bigger than the ones we've had the past few years, and I love it! It's filled with an eclectic assortment of ornaments, some from when my girls were little, some from our travels, some gifts, some new...the star on top was my husband's when he was growing up. He remembers going to buy it with his dad, more than 50 years ago. And it is still spinning! The tree just isn't complete without that star.

This year, I finally bought a small tree to showcase my stitched ornaments. Some of these are ones I stitched, but most are gifts from stitching friends. I had a tabletop tree for years, but I cold never stuff all the ornaments on there. This works out so much better!

And this is our little Charlie Brown tree. I just couldn't resist!

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful season...thanks for taking the time to visit!

last late TUSAL of 2015

I figured I might as well not break my pattern of being late all year!

Here is froggy with this month's offering...

 And here he is with my jar for the year...I didn't feel like I've had much chance to stitch this year, but the jar is full, so I guess I accomplished more than I thought I did!

Looking forward to next year...and being on time! (If you want to join next year, here's a link to tell you all about it! - thanks, Sharon!)

Thanks for visiting!

ideas for the new year and other stitchy stuff

Stitch from Stash is no more...not that I did very well this year anyway. Last year, I hardly spent anything, this year...well,I spent a lot more! And, even though I know that I have more than I could ever hope to stitch, and even though I have way too many WIPs, I am drooling over lots of new things to buy. Is there any hope left for me? Probably not!

But I do want to have some kind of plan for the new year. I don't think I am going to join the Crazy Challenge this year, but I do hope to finish some of the projects I started over the last few crazy challenges!

I think I might do the same challenge that my LNS (Acorns and Threads) did last year (although I didn't get very far in it last time!) We started a new project for every Saturday in January, and then a new project each first Saturday of each month of the year. So that would be 16 new projects, and since next year is 2016, I though it was kismet! In addition to a January 1st start, that would be at least 17 new projects.

And, I really do want to get through some of my WIPs... I'd also like to get an ornament a month done, a mitten a month, and all the blocks for our Stitchers' Timeout group exchange.
What am I thinking????

It has been so long since I actually updated this blog, that I do have some stitching to show! I finished two more of the Cricket Collection's mittens. The first is called Claddagh Mitten, the second is Ginger Mitten. I really love stitching these...they are so much fun to do.

There is a group over on Facebook called Fans of Blackbird Designs, and we are so fortunate to have access to a lending library of some out of print designs from BBD. The first is Blessings Be Thine (which I believe is being reprinted in a new Christmas book from Blackbird Designs), and the second is called Their Song. I loved stitching both of these, and am currently working on two more!

The last one I would like to share is a design from Carol at iStitch. It is called Stitching Soothes the Soul. I love Carol's designs...they always really relax me when I am stitching them.

I guess I should get back to work...thanks for taking the time to visit today. Hope everyone has a great weekend planned!