It's been a couple of busy days here

Well, it's been a couple of busy days here at our house. I've been on vacation so they say, but if you ask me the last 3 days has been anything but leisure. Is it just me, or do you tend to spend your vacation, if you stay home, to play catch up with all the things you said you'd do once you got a scrap of time? That's what this past week has been. Playing catch up to get ready for Christmas.

I put up the tree on Friday. Olivia helped.

It took all afternoon, but that's ok cause I actually enjoyed it for a change and it looks spectacular. The Cadet though will think it's just OK, we used to go out and cut one down at the local tree farm and honestly, we've come home with 12 - 15 foot trees. The tree would be so big, it would take up the entire width of the living room and hit the ceiling fan way at the top of the cathedral ceiling. It's funny about the Cadet, he's been reminiscing about Christmas' past and the things he told me just took me by surprise. Honestly, he never said anything mattered to him at the time but now, he tells me that he loved it when I decorated all the windows in swags of garland, how festive it was, and how he loved going out and cutting down BIG trees and that he wanted me to make sugar cookies for him cause he remembered how we decorated them together one year (he was 5!). I never thought any of my efforts meant anything to him. Geez. Who knew?!

Today, I spent some time housecleaning, the family room got a good scrub and I did some laundry. I made 9 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow, I hope it doesn't snow. We will be eating peanut butter blossoms for a LONG time if the party gets cancelled. The weather guy is predicting 3-6" in the afternoon. If that happens, then I will be staying put.

I stitched a little tonight, nothing to note really, it was quite a chore. I don't know if I am tired or just too wired on caffeine. I got tired of fighting off Olivia too. She is in one of her "moods" where everything she lays eyes on must be "killed". So far, she made off with my scissor fob (with scissors attached), a bobbin of DMC and a skein too. This morning, Olivia decided to go after my oatmeal while I was on the computer. She jumped onto the desk, jumped over the keyboard and slid right into my mug of coffee. The coffee cup went flying, she went flying off the desk taking the cable modem with her. The coffee was spattered all over the wall and onto the computer tower and wireless router. 12 oz of Irish Creme coffee with milk on ELECTRONICS. Do you know that liquids and electronics do not play well together? Fortunately, all that happened was the internet went out cause she pulled the cable out of the cable modem when she went flying and took it with her. Oh, I held my breath though, all I could think of was that the computer was fried. Not a good thing! But all is well and it took a while to clean up the mess from the wall, the hardwood floor and the computer stuff. She's a holy terror right now.

She is kidding, right? Do you think I am a "Holy Terror"??

I downloaded a pattern from The Sampler Girl (It's a Wonderful Life) from PatternMart and the download is fuzzy. Actually, I am a little disappointed in the quality of the PDF. I imagine they scan the pattern and convert it to PDF. I am having trouble reading some of the symbols. Has anyone else encountered blurry patterns from PatternMart when you do an instant download? Last night, I worked a little on True Virtue (Connie and I are SALing - hey girlfriend!) and I started a Prairie Schooler Santa ornament from Santa and Snowmen.

I am hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to take a few pictures of my tree and some of my stitching to share with you. I've been visiting blogs and I've gotten to see some really great Christmas decorating. I hope you are having a great weekend and are just about ready for Christmas!

Oh, and one more thing...can one of you computer savy bloggers come to my rescue and tell me how to fix my banner? I'd like to move the picture and enlarge and change the color and the font of my header. Thanks for your help!

What's been occupying my time

First of all, here's a picture of Olivia after she terrorized SweetieGirl, attacked my stitching and played with a chunk of wood for most of this morning. She jumped into the office chair about 5 minutes ago and promptly turned "OFF".

I joined a group, Seasonal Ornament SAL, that's stitching ornaments throughout the year. Vonna started it and the first ornament was to be for Thanksgiving. Ok, so Thanksgiving was LAST month...sue me. I chose the cornucopia from Prairie Schooler's, Autumn Samplers, and personalized it. I stitched it over one on 28 count Lambswool Lugana. It's tiny.

Lately, I've noticed that I am grousing more and more on what I don't have instead of being grateful for what I do. I am doing my best to be grateful for what I have and not to worry about what I don't. It's very hard for me cause deep down, I am a MATERIAL Girl. No, I am not Madonna, but I do like expensive things. Over the years, I've toned down shopping almost to the point of hating it. But when I do shop, I have a tendency to blow through a lot of cash in a short amount of time. This will be made into a pillow ornament and put where I can see it. ALL THE TIME.

Progress on Beatrix Potter.

I got back into her and I know I shouldn't work on her until the first of the year when the SAL officially begins but working with silk is a guilty pleasure. Bea is the only sampler I have in the Wip pile that's in silk now so when I need my silk fix, I go to her. Plus finishing motifs is like instant gratification. I am almost 1/2 done with her. Her sister is waiting in the wings to be started after I finish her.

Last is Blessings and Kind Wishes.

I hate the thread. And no, I will not get it finished for Christmas cause I hate the thread. I force myself to work on it. And right now, in the frame of mind I am in, forcing myself to work on a sampler that I am not enjoying is, well, just stupid. I will guilt myself into working on it (probably in small doses) so it will get done.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures and the wrinkly fabric. I just couldn't bring myself to dig out the iron and set up the ironing board.


So, there. I've been stitching. Next week, I start my glorious 2.5 week vacation. After Wednesday, I will be off until January 5th! YIPPIE!!! So I will be doing a lot of stitching and I will be working on some Christmas gifties. And finishing decorating and starting to bake. I am so looking forward to this time off.

I'll be more active on the ol' blog too so come back again. Thank you all for coming by! I AM grateful for all of you!