Santa's Village..... and other temptations

Wow, I just realized the other day how long it had been since I had updated this end of the world. I wish I could say that I had a wonderful amount of stitching progress and finishes to share with you all but I can't. I did enjoy quite a bit of reading and have two different books on the go right now. One was the last Monica Ferris stitching mystery, Threadbare and the other is Mauve Binchy's Whitethorn Woods. Trips to the library is definitely helping keep the budget under control in our house and between Becky and me, they local librarians are starting to recognize us as frequent borrowers. Becky is even talking about wanting to volunteer at the library over the summer because of her love of books and she is wanting to go into teaching which may be a good fit for her. Ray has been having good days and bad days still with the stress of the bullying he has been subject to in school but I'm hoping that he eventually calms down since a teacher's aide has been assigned to him for all but 1 hour a day. That class period has 2 teachers in the room and one keeps a close eye on him. Ray had to have 2 teeth removed this week that were baby teeth that had came in double behind his molars in the roof of his mouth and he is just starting to try eating softer solid foods.

One of the most recent designs which I fell in love with was Santa's Village by Country Cottage Needleworks.  I had hoped to wait until my Joan Elliott design is done but the stitching demon all of us battle on a daily basis was just screaming, "What is another stitching project going to hurt????" Of course, I want to make the village as a whole but I'm dreaming of little ornaments for me tree as well. I would love to do this over one but I'm not sure if my sanity or eyesight would hold out that long. I started this over one and realized really quick that if I wanted to be mobile without the aid of a white stick or a yellow dog that I would need to give up that idea, well at least over one of 32 count Jobelan. A friend of mine is working it on 25 count over one and I'll take a look at that to see if I think my eyes would survive or not. Initially this was going along swimmingly until I went to stitch on it one day after having a migraine behind my eyes. The next morning I realized I had been merrily stitching along making nice looking stitches which were all in the right locations, but in the wrong color! I guess my mind was looking at the chart and the symbols were reminding me of another project because I had done all the red in while. I guess this is one of the hazards of having many projects in progress at once. I am thinking that I'll do each of these pieces as separate panels and maybe look into making a wall hanging/quilt when I have all 12 stitched for a different type of holiday display.

Now the good news is I have been working on Dragon Dreams still and am definitely nearing the finish line. This piece is so pretty and while at the end I started getting stitches that moved all over the place on the design and required running threads behind stitches, it has been a fun stitch. The metallics are coming along and I'm very glad that it isn't a huge amount of stitches in their fiber but it is just enough to really add dimension to the overall piece. Backstitching is going to be started this week on the bottom of the dragon since I only have the head left to work on with metallics and I will probably want to make sure I have some quiet for that since it is a lot of fractional stitching. Once done, I will get it up to the Stitching Post for framing and I think I'll make my June deadline for Becky's middle school graduation.

I also picked up one of the new Lizzie Kate boxer sets (Yep, that resolution not to buy anything new went right out the window didn't it????) but I honestly have to say that it spoke to me. When you consider the roller coaster ride that is my life, you have to admit there is something about this one that just screams my name. When I saw it at my LNS the other day when hanging out with a friend, Kathy, we came across these new designs. Kathy bought two of them but this one just jumped in my hand and brought a smile to my face. There is so many times I have to wonder what God has planned in my life and if I am ready for it. I know you aren't supposed to question God's will but I'm human and sometimes it just slips unbidden in your head. I think I'll make this for a Christmas present or two because I just really like it and I know a few people that would appreciate it. I do promise this will not be started anytime soon though since I am wanting to finish up the Musician, Dragon Dreams and continue to keep up with the monthly releases of Santa's Village.

Otherwise, life has been a pattern of work, going through the basement and working on the bedrooms here in the house. I'm hoping to be ready for some painting in the kid's rooms next and to make their rooms their own little domains. Becky is into the fantasy stuff, unicorns, wizards, fairies and such but Ray hasn't really picked any specific thing which he is interested in so I'm thinking some Mario Bros, Baltimore Ravens and who knows what else to make his room is own.