Some News

Christmas at Chez Kitty was awesome! The Cadet was home and the house met his high standards for Christmas decorations...WHEW! He brought home Ella Kitty,who is visiting us for a little while. We've got 3 house cats now and the fun never stops. Olivia and Ella do the Kitty 500 around the house and for the first time in forever, SweetieGirl, plays along. When the weather is cold, Screamer, the barn cat, comes in too but she stays in the sunroom, snoozing mainly. She's the Queen of all and she will not lower herself to running around the house like the other 3.

Santa was good to The Cadet, much better than he anticipated, because the Elves (that's us) were on a very tight budget this year. But, true to form, the head elf (that's me!) said...to HELL with it, I'll deal in January. Plus, the second elf (the DH) did return to his regular job part time during his student teaching stint so the purse strings loosened just a bit. The Cadet got his wishes and then some.

I got a few calendars (one for the house and one for the office), some socks, a very cute snowman votive holder, a gift card to Christopher and Banks, an amarylis bulb and an amarylis garden and a Josh Groban Christmas CD. I didn't get (nor did I ask for) any stitching gifts. I've been bad with ordering stash lately so that was my gift to myself. I'll gather up the goodies and take a picture to share my haul with you.

The DH got clothes, his closet needed an infusion of new things, most of his stuff is getting a bit threadbare. So it was shirts, ties, and dress pants. And jeans. Oh, and a desk chair. I've been threatening him with moving him into the 4th bedroom because he's overtaken my kitchen table and now, we are actually 2 steps closer to getting him set up into a proper office.

Oh, lest I forget, we got a new DVD/VCR player too, a cheap one cause we obviously are appliance/electronic challenged in this house. None of our appliances or electronics last more than 2 years. I think I am on my 35th can opener and 20th coffee maker. The DVD player had my name on it but really, we all know who it was for...

On the stitching front, well, I've stitched a little bit but not as much as I'd hoped. Actually, this vacation has been rather, umm, lazy. I've spent more than my share of time on this machine. I think as a New Year resolution, I'm going to limit the amount of time I can spend on it. I get caught up in reading blogs, I think I have over 50 on my feed list and I very diligently read everyone that's updated. A great time consumer...so, I may cut back and read some one day and the rest another. Oh, we'll see how that plays out.

I did work on True Virtue a little bit. I'm working on the alphabets. I've stitched the upper case alphabet and a portion of the lower case one. I put in 4 numbers but I'm going to take them out cause I want to change the color. And I put in a couple more rice stitched motifs in the border. I thought that I'd stitch more but we've been busy, more than I've expected.

Jenna came here on the 26th to spend the day with us. It was much too short, we celebrated the DH's birthday (it's the 29th) at Red Lobster, made a trip to Barnes & Nobles and went home to have a piece of frozen Boston Creme pie. Long story. The Cadet's Best Friend, Charlie, was here too so it was ALL good for me!

Well, I will go for now... I'm leaving you a picture of the Cadet and the Lovely Jenna...

Thanks for stopping by and I'll get pictures up on the next post.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone who stops by to see what's happening in Joanie's World.

Quaker Alphabet Exchange pictures

Well, as I promised, this is the Quaker Alphabet exchange that I made for Amy (Amy Stitches). I pinched the photos from her blog... I hope she doesn't mind cause the camera is fritzing.

I used the Simple Harvest Alphabet from Blackbird Designs, Needle & Thread. I stitched this side over one thread on 32 ct. Lugana with Vicki Clayton's Garnet silk.



On this side, I stitched an Ackworth Urn pattern from Ackworth Pattern Book by Jacqueline Holdsworth over 2 threads with one strand of silk.

The tassles are made with the silk too. I hate to make tassles, or should I say, I hate ATTACHING the tassles to the piece because they just look messy. If anyone has tips on stitching the tassles on invisibly and close to the little pillow, please let me know.

I love stitching for exchanges but I really obsess over the finishing. I have a finishing phobia because I see all the beautiful pieces you make and I don't feel my skills are on par.

Silly, I know.

Amy likes the little pillow, she sent me the nicest note too! So, that's fab! ENJOY!

Cari also made me the bestest scissor fob for this exchange. The fob is stitched over one on the teeniest count of fabric with the coolest overdyed thread in a luscious Autumn color. I put it under my magnifier and I thought to myself, I wouldn't be able to stitch this over 2 on this fabric, let alone full cross stitches over one. I LOVE IT and I've been using it with the prettiest autumn colored Gingher scissors that she included. Plus, she sent me a book thong with a little horse charm....too cool! It's holding my place in my bible.

I apologize to her because I have not posted a picture of it. Partially because I haven't had a chance to breath, I am working so many hours recently because of a big Customer audit in a few weeks and by the time I get home, there is no light to take decent pictures. And the point and shoot digital camera has decided to fritz out when it feels like it, intermittently.

And news! I sent my love, John Foster, to the framers...woo! I can't wait to get him home! I know I shouldn't have indulged but he is so lovely (swoon) that he doesn't deserve to be tucked in a drawer until we have a blue moon, the cow's come home or hell freezes over, in that order. (Is anyone else out there so in love with a design that it makes your heart just sing? Or am I the only weirdo stitcher on the planet....)

The Cadet just came home too, so we are off to dinner at Uno's.

Thanks for hanging in there with me and thanks for stopping by!