Jenny Bean's Christmas and an Exchange Gift

Just in time for the holiday, may I present Miss Jenny Bean's Christmas.......

Jenny Bean's Christmas by Shakespeare's Peddler
stitched on 32 ct Lakeside Linen Magnolia
using Gentle Arts Floss

This was the first design by Theresa Venette of Shakespeare's Peddler that I've ever stitched and it won't be the the last, that's for sure. I loved working on this one! I've had several comments by non stitchers who've seen me working on this that they really like the design and colours. Theresa has created a new design for the retreat in Williamsburg, VA and has a few extra kits left to offer. It's called A Wassailing and you can see a picture of it here. If you want one of the kits, you can put in a request on her blog. It's first come, first serve and I put in my request as soon as I saw the kit.

I also found the time to finish up one of the ornaments that I stitched last year. It's LHN Pear Tree and up until now it's been hiding in the bottom drawer with all my stitching finishes. There are several more ornaments hiding in that drawer which also should be hanging on my tree but there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get them all finished. Finishing takes me forever! Before I even start, I could spend hours just trying to decide which fabric, trim, etc. I should use. I envy those of you who can finish up an ornament within a short period of time.

Speaking of ornaments, lookee what the postman brought me on Friday!

Not one, but two of the sweetest little snowmen! These cuties were an exchange gift I received from Patty. I have admired this pattern on several blogs where they have stitched this design and I was so pleased to see that I won't have to stitch one for myself now. They're both finished so beautifully and each one sports a little Hand Made with Love charm on the reverse.

Aren't they gorgeous? Thank you very much Patty! They will always have a treasured spot on my Christmas tree each year.

I have recently purchased a new tree for my ornaments. My existing little tree is too small to hold anymore. I've been keeping a look out for a small twig tree but I found they wanted a terrible price for the ones I'd seen. Finally, in my own backyard, I found a sweet little tree that is just perfect for my ornaments. I'll have a picture of it to show you on my next post along with pics of my main Christmas tree. My son Daniel helped me finish off the decorating on Thursday. It was his birthday and it's a tradition that he helps me decorate the tree on his special day.

Happy Birthday Daniel and thanks for all your help!

It's nuts around here!

Two things have prevented me from getting a lot of stitching done this past week. The first is the ongoing renovations to repair our flood damage. Workers have been coming and going, drywall dust is everywhere and displaced items are in my way everywhere in the house.  It makes things very hard to settle and concentrate. However the  new carpet will be laid on Wednesday and all our junk  belongings put back in their rightful place Thursday. DH and I spent yesterday washing drywall dust off of most surfaces.

The second thing which hasn't helped my stitching any is that my Daylite lamp with magnifying lens appears to be on its way out. The light keeps flickering and now has finally died, all of which is due to a broken socket. Bob tried to repair it yesterday with no luck. He has a local fellow that he's going to take it to for repair. I have some table top Ott lites but it's not the same especially without the magnification. I'm hoping the repair doesn't take too long. Last time he repaired my lamp I didn't have it for a month.
 I see that JoAnn's has had a sale on the Ottlites. Perhaps I should make a visit stateside to pick one up.

Don't you just love the pics of my furry visitor? I've never seen a squirrel with white tufts of fur on the ears like this one. Her partner in crime could be distinguished by the beige vest that he was sporting.

I've put my ornaments aside this week in favour of Jenny Bean's Christmas.  I really enjoy stitching this one and find it so unique for a Christmas design.

It appears my iron isn't working all that well these days! It's just not putting out the heat even when I try the steam setting. Sorry about the mussy pic.

The second piece I've been working on is for an exchange so I can't show any peeks of that one yet.  I've also made a start on Tra La La Duo Noel. I wasn't far into it before I discovered a  mistake in the charting of the alphabet. The W didn't look anything like what it should and came out looking like a more glorified letter V. The charts for both of these two stitches have the same alphabet so I flipped the chart over to the second stitch and found the correct lettering. Now I'm back on track. I'm thinking that my next ornament stitch will be using the top portion of one of these designs minus the alphabet.

I'm hoping to get back to my ornament stitching next week. During the past two weeks I've managed to get almost all of my Christmas shopping done. Just a few items left such as stocking stuffers for my granddaughters.  The weather here has been unseasonably mild which has also aided me in getting my Christmas lights out on my shrubs.

 I've recently picked up a few Christmas baking magazines to help me pick out some new cookies for this year's baking. I always try to find one or two new ones to try each year. I love the BH&G Cookie issues that come out every fall. A second favourite are the Canadian Living issues. Oh yes and the Taste of Home seasonal magazines. This one is an older issue I dug out. I always manage to find some new favourites within the covers of these three. I'm so excited that I actually have the time to bake this year!

With extra time on my hands I also joined the new casserole ministry at our church. We will be cooking up casseroles and freezing them. These will be used to send out to any members of the congregation who fall ill and are unable to cook for themselves or to anyone who has a death within their family. Before this ministry was announced, DH and I made three casseroles last week for friends who took sick. I think it's a wonderful idea and there is definitely a need. After all, many members of the congregation are elderly and live on their own so there is no one else to cook for them should they fall ill.

Lots of Christmas craft and bake sales are popping up in our area and I noticed that the stores are now displaying their seasonal finery. It certainly brightens up the dull November landscape. Lots to see and do! I hope that some of the excitement of the upcoming season is spreading your way. I can hardly wait until I have my family all together once more!

Halloween's over, Bring on Christmas stitching!

I know that many of you start to bring out your Christmas garland once Halloween has past. Although we don't decorate here quite that early it doesn't mean that I can't start thinking about Christmas! Becky's Christmas Ornament Challenge starts today and I'm kitted up and ready to go. I'll put my first stitches in after I finish this post. I have so many ornaments designs that I've dug out to stitch. I'll be happy if I can finish even a couple of these. I know I won the Pumpkin Challenge last year but too many other activities start to take place in the next few weeks and I won't have a hope of completing as many projects as I did then.

However I have been stitching away on my Jenny Bean Christmas Sampler and really enjoying it! I'll put this aside now for a few days while I get started on my ornaments.

No, I haven't forgotten about Gobble. I've put a few more stitches into it as well and will have another progress pic soon. Yesterday's mail brought the charts from the rest of the series.

Gather, Give and Ghoul all look like such fun stitches. They won't get done in the near future but I certainly hope to start on at least one of them in the coming year. Eventually it would be nice to have them all hung in a group.

Another PSS design which was a recent ebay win also showed up yesterday. It's called A Handwork's Pace. I love the verse on this one. Click on the pic to read it.

My youngest arrived home on the weekend for a very short visit. He wanted to see his girlfriend and attend some of the Halloween festivities in the area. We caught up with them on Sunday for lunch. He showed me some great pics taken of the two of them in costume. He was supposed to email them to me but they haven't shown up yet. In the meantime I snapped a pic of them during our visit.

Chris always loved watching me carve our Halloween pumpkins. He asked if I was  still doing them. I sure am! Below is a pic of this year's carvings. Sorry it's a bit grainy. I didn't bother setting up the tripod to take it and should have with the low light setting.

Time to get to those ornaments! Hope you have a good start to your week and I'll catch up with you soon!


Edited: Okay so right after I posted this, the pics from Chris showed up. You saw the pic above, now see them dressed for two different events.

 

The first pic they donned makeup for a walking tour at Screamers in Toronto and the second photo is of Chris dressed as Chucky. and Steph dressed as Tiff, Chucky's bride. Love the makeup! Can you tell that my son is a horror film buff, lol? Seems his girlfriend has similar interests!

I've also included a pic that he sent me from this year's Festival of Fear in Toronto. Believe it or not, this is Doug Bradley who played Hellraiser from the movie of the same name. Chris also got to meet Robert Englund who played Freddy Kruger.

A Christmas start, TUSAL and Crumpets

Christmas is fast approaching, at least in terms of stitching it is! Having completed my Halloween Quaker I gave myself permission for a new start. Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler is one that I've had my eye on for some time now. I have several of the Shakespeare's Peddler designs in my stash but this is the first that I've pulled to try. I'm stitching it on LL Magnolia and I'm really loving this fabric! Lots of lovely coloured floss too! I'll be packing this one up for my stitching this afternoon.

The new moon is upon us once more and with that comes TUSAL.
My little ort jars were pretty full this month. Lots of blacks, browns, rusts and golds from Halloween Quaker and Acorn Hill. My large jar appears to be just the perfect size to hold my annual orts. When I stopped by my girlfriend's place the other night she had the same jar but it was filled with potpourri. If you remember, this jar has holes on top of the cap so it's the perfect jar for scenting a room in this way plus it showed off the dried berries perfectly.

Last night's weekly stitch was filled with fun. Many of the ladies had just returned from the Fall Retreat in Gananoque. Unfortunately I was not one of them since it's just not in the budget. The retreats are now being run by Laura of Enchanting Lair designs. Laura hand dyes fabric and she brought a selection of her fabs to retreat. Following retreat the fabrics were sent along with a member of our stitching group for those of us who couldn't make the retreat.

Okay so you all know what happens when there is a table full of fabric and a room full of stitchers! Lots of ooohs, aaahs and major fondling going on!  I had hoped to pick up some more 32 ct for my stash but it all sold at the retreat so I came home with these two pieces of 28ct.

The one on the left is a lugana and the one on the right is a linen. I had a terrible time taking photos of these though. The linen is one of her new colours called Spydermyst. You can't see it from this pic but it has a very subtle mottling throughout it. I already have a project in mind for this one.

 

 The lugana fabric is oh so yummy! Isn't this a wonderful piece of fabric! That mottling is like a soft copper colour and I snapped this piece up as soon as I saw it. It's called Smouldering Skies. It would work great for an autumn or Halloween stitch I think.

On the lighter side, I've discovered crumpets! I haven't mentioned it here yet but I've been trying to shed some pounds. I have an athritic hip and haven't been able to exercise much. Combine that with my high blood pressure and it's time to drop some weight. My biggest downfall are breads. Actually carbs in general but breads just seem to call my name! We've replaced our bread with the Weight Watchers version but it just doesn't seem the same for my morning toast.

Yesterday I paid a trip to our local grocer and discovered these little goodies on the shelves.

Okay so I'd heard of crumpets but I never really knew what they were. Turns out, this particular brand has 0 gms of fat and a very low carb count. Hmmm, how would they taste toasted? I dropped the package into the cart and headed home with them. This morning was the true test. I love them! The bottom looks almost like a pancake and the spongy surface soaks up my reduced calorie jelly, filling the whole crumpet with flavour. Along with my shredded wheat it is keeping the hunger pangs away quite nicely. Who knew!!

I hope you all have the time to fit in at least a few stitches this week and welcome to my new followers!