Reflections

As 2010 closes, I just want to say thank you to all of you who come by Joanie's World.  It's nice to know that all of you are in my corner of cyberworld. I've made a ton of friends through this little slice of internet and each of you leave me inspired, spark my creativity and just sometimes kick me in the a$$. 

My year was fair to mid-land.  Some good things happened, the house finally got finished.

Mike and Jenna spent the year in Texas.

The DH retired:

And I kept my job.

Stitching wise, I finished a few things but started many more:

So, here's to new beginnings and learning from the past.  Onto 2011!

Breathe

Oh after 9 long months, my kids are here!  I feel that I can breathe again.  They are here.  I am very happy.

Sophie, Mike & Jenna

They are my greatest joy and this is the best Christmas present that I received  :-) .

Merry Christmas to all my blogger friends!  Thank you so much for your friendship, inspiration and love!  I cherish each and everyone of you that drop by to visit Joanie's World.

May you have a wonderful Christmas filled with laughter, friends, family and great food.  I hope that Santa's good to you and that you take a moment to reflect on God's gift to us.  Blesssings to all of you in 2011!!

The GIVE-AWAY

Ok, I've made a decision about the give-away.  Today is the first day of Winter and it's the day that I put out my snowmen.  I've got quite a collection and each year I add a few more.  So in celebration of the longest day of the year, I am holding my give-away.  IT'S A SURPRISE (cuz I don't have a camera to take pics...LOL!!).


Just a few hints...

 

There's cross stitch charts, fabric and fibers, a painted thing or 2 and it's going to be all wrapped up in something very pretty.

If you want to play...please leave me a comment on this post only.  Make sure you have your email address or a way to contact you if you are the weiner!!!

You do not need to be a follower, although it would be nice if you joined the party.  You just have to like Winter.

I'll draw the winner's name on January 1st. 

Hope you'll play...

Christmas Time is Near

Hi Everyone!  I hope all of you are ready for Santa Claus.  I'm just about ready to go, the presents still need to be wrapped and I have some baking to do but the good thing is that I am on VACATION!!!!  OMGosh, 2 WHOLE WEEKS OFF from the madness of my job (which I dearly love but am completely burned out.  I am crispy).

What do you think I'll be doing with my time?  Well, I have some household things that need attending to desperately and of course there's the baking and present wrapping.  I have a list that could wrap around the earth a few times.  If I get a 10th of it done, I'll be a happy camper. 

First of all there's the general housecleaning, not too big of a job and it's necessary.  I want to clean out a few closets and I really want to organize my craft room.  It's claustrophobic because I have stuff literally hanging from the ceiling.  It needs a good clean and scrub.  I want to go through some old magazines, put things away and generally make it a nice place to work again.  When I let it go, it becomes a catch-all room and all the creativity gets lost.  I don't want to be there and work. 

The other big job is the basement dungeon.   The TV show, Hoarders, would have a field day down there.  You take a chance with your life to go down there, you may never return to the light of day!  We have things that we trucked from our old house that we lived in for 11 years (we've been in this house for 21 years) so I have stuff from 30 years ago that hasn't seen the light of day and I figure if we haven't opened those boxes by now, it's a safe bet that we won't miss the stuff when it's gone.  There's construction stuff from when the house was built, craft goodies, holiday decorations, Mike's things and the flotsam and jetsam of 21 years of living here. Well, you get the idea.  It's time to purge.  I want the house to vomit it out to the landfill.  A clean slate for 2011 and I hope to break that law of nature that says Nature abhors a vacuum and avoid filling it back up.  Wish me luck!

But I really want to finish some cross stitch things this week.  I spent most of my time painting snowmen this weekend and had absolutely NO needle time in over a week.  I have a few ornaments that need to be put together and a pillow I want to finish.  And I want to stitch.  And stitch some more.

Next week, Mike and Jenna will be here!!! I am so looking forward to seeing them!  They will be home for a few days.  Mike will be leaving for Florida mid-January for additional training, Jenna will be with her parents while he is there and they will leave for Japan in mid-February.  I am glad because originally they were to leave for Japan on January 6th.  Now Jenna will get a chance to say a proper good-bye to her parents and friends.  They won't feel like they are getting ripped out of their lives here and dropped into Okinawa.  They now get to ease into Japan. 

I promised you my list of Wips that I pledge to bust in 2011 during the Flipin' Crazy January Challenge.  So here it is...in no particular order:

• Alphabets - Merrily Beams
• Snow Day - With Thy Needle and Thread
• Christmas Double Flips - Lizzie*Kate
• Her Sampler - Carriagehouse Samplings
• Sweeping Snowflakes - With Thy Needle and Thread
• Friendship Sampler - BOAF
• Eye on the Sparrow - Silver Creek Samplers
• Quaker Medallion Sampler - SANQ Winter 2000
• Ellen Birdseye - The Good Huswife
• Remember Me - Mary Garry
•  Thankful Wheeler - The Good Huswife
• Time and Season Sampler - Moira Blackburn
• Maria Chivers - Samplers Remembered
• This is the Day - Hands to Work
• True Virtue Sampler (Janie Applebaum) JCS magazine

That's the list...I hope to finish them this coming year.  I always start a new goodie on January 1st but I haven't made up my mind if I want to do that or pick up one of these that I haven't touched in months or years.  If I do that, it'll "feel" like a new start and not add to this growing and growing list.

I also joined the Crazy January 2011 Challenge to stitch Christmas ornaments and I joined the All Year Long Christmas Stitch-a-long just to stitch Christmas things.  That SAL is really no pressure and I'll post the ornaments I finish there.  I wish someone would start an All Year Long Halloween Stitch-a-long.  Now that would be sweet!

The DH is in Texas to attend Mike's graduation from Mil Intel School and to help the kids drive their cars back to NY.  He won't be back until late Christmas Eve.  The camera is with him and I won't be able to post pics until he gets home.  So be patient.  I know I promised a give-away but unless you want it to be a TOTAL surprise you'll have to wait until next week for that post with pictures. 

Anyway...sorry for the long post and thanks so much for visiting my corner of the world!  I love it when you come by!  I'll post something later in the week....for Christmas...

There is a Method to my Madness

I am certifiably insane.  I decided to join the Crazy January Challenge.    But!  There's a method to this madness.  I am ONY stitching ornaments and small pieces throughout the year for my christmas tree and as bowl fillers.  You know, the cazy idea I had this year to stitch seasonal items and display them?  Well, I think this is going to keep me focused on doing just that!

And I've chosen my 15 WIPs for Jayne's challenge. That challenge will be the more difficult one because most of my WIPs are only 1/2 completed.  I guess the bloom fades about 1/2 way into the project.  I was so surprised when I pulled them out and realized that just about all of them are at the 1/2 way point.  LOL!  Anyway, I'll post all of my lists later this weekend.  I'm on my way to a cookie exchange.  T'is the Season!

Hi There

I hope all my US friends had a great Thanksgiving!  And to all my out of country buddies, I hope you had a nice weekend.  I made it a l-o-n-g weekend out of it, I took vacation 1/2 day vacation on Tuesday, a full day of vacation on Wednesday and Friday was shutdown.  I thought I'd get a lot of stitching done but that didn't happen.  I worked on Miss Snow Fairy and my Lizzie Kate Christmas snip-its.  But what I spent most of the weekend on was our bedroom.  The David decided he wanted to remove the acoustic ceiling, sand and repaint it.  That led to repainting the entire room and steam cleaning the carpet.  My knees still aren't happy from getting up and down the ladder a bojillion times. We painted the room a lovely caramel color called Cracker Bitz.  I thought I'd get a pic of the room for you but there hasn't been any sun in my chunk o'world since LAST week.  It's rained and rained and continues to rain here.  But, the bedroom looks spectacular and it's stayed clutter free for 4 whole days!!   A RECORD!!! LOL!

Tonight I am very tired and somewhat down.  There is so much to do to get ready for Mike and Jenna when they come home for Christmas (crossing my fingers).  I haven't done any decorating yet. I usually wait until mid-December to put up the tree but I think this year I'm going to put it up next weekend.   I think I'll do some decorating on the weekend, the table decorations and window garlands.  Probably, I'll start on Sunday cause I'm going to a Cookie Exchange on Saturday (I'm making 8 dozen peanut butter blossom cookies on Friday night). 

Have you heard about the Crazy January Challenge where you start a new project everyday for the first 15 days in January and then working on them throughout the year until they are done?  It's like a 1/2 month Guilt-free January.  I've decided instead of starting 15 new pieces (which is truly crazy and got me in the WIP mess that I'm currently in), I'm going to chose 15 WIPs and work on them until they are finished.  I'm joining this blog Up 4 a Challenge .  Jayne from An Eye for Threads at Henley's Landing is hosting it.  I'll post my 15 and then let the challenge begin.  Want to join me?

Oh, I've decided that I will have my Give-Away on December 21st.  It's a Frosty Friend Giveaway, filled with Snowmen...a painted Frosty Friend, some Frosty Stash, fabric and a chart or 3....stay tuned for the details. I'm going to keep it simple....so watch for the post announcing it on the 15th!

Anyway...I'm going to go off and try to stitch.  Sorry no pics.  Maybe when the sun returns soon, I hope.