Some finishes!

5th,

6th,
7th,
and 8th Santa from PS Redwork Santa's.
Angel Stitching's ornament from the 2005 JCS issue.

So I finished some small things, the last Santa's from The Prairie Schoolers Redwork Santa's leaflet and the last ornament in our ornament SAL. I haven't stitched that much during the break, I been mostly hanging out with the kids and seeing friends. So it's been really fun!

I have some great pictures of the gift from Kath and my presents that I finished before Christmas but I can't find the camera. This time I must have put in a real good place, giggle.

We did watch some good movies, Munich and Inside Man. I can really recommend both.

Christmas was lovely, got a new handbag and a Kitchenaid slow cooker from DH, plus some other cute things. We have had fun playing the kids new boardgames, my favorite is Clue. Today we're not going out nor having friends over for dinner so DH agreed on ordering in pizza to my surprise (he's not keen on fast food) so I will have a really relaxed evening.

I did pull out Mirabilia's Sleeping Beauty again and I think I will keep stitching on her for a couple of weeks. That project is a real beast, I have never worked on anything else for this long time but I do have a tendency to put her away.

Found this St Lucia picture!

The kids December 13th 2005

I went through my old pictures and found this picture of the kids from last years St Lucia celebration. Us Swedes here in Omaha get together and do a pot luck party with lots of yummy Swedish Christmas food and all the kids are dressed up and sings (well, at least they sing, my DS sometimes just opt for that as you can see). This year I ran out the door without my camera, it had been a busy day, but a friend is emailing her pictures. My oldest daughter LOVES this tradition.
The Great White Pumpkin by Heart in Hand.


I don't think I ever posted this piece, it's The Great White Pumpkin by Heart in Hand. This was probably the last piece that I finished stitching before I hit my stitching slump. It took me a month at least to scan it even. I don't really know how to finish it yet. Maybe a flat fold? I had a hard time finding cute fall patterned fabrics this year. There is a really good quilt shop in Gretna not to far from me, The Quilting Moose, and I plan to stop by there and see what they have in January.

Hopefully I will get some stitching in today, I'm just going to stay home and wrap gifts and try to relax a bit. The SAL ornament this month is a bit tedious, Angel Stitching's from the 2005 JCS ornament issue. I will see if I can't get some more done it though, I've stitched all the other 11 ones.

A Workbasket ornament
A Mosey N Me ornament
I think Gail Bussi designed this ornament.

I have been trying to take pictures of my finished ornament lately, I'm not the greatest photographer though. These are the pictures that turned out decent this time. But I'm going to keep trying to snap away and post pictures of my handmade ornaments. One day when the play room are used as the dining room it was intended to be, I'll put a tree in there with just handmade ornaments. I'm starting to get quite a collection with all the Ornament SAL's that I have done over the years.

A scrap booking friend of mine gave me some acid free thick paper that I'm going to play around with when I start finishing my pile of unfinished ornaments (I'm bad when it comes to finishing). It's really nice, very sturdy but you can still cut through it easily if you want different shapes. Evidently the scrap booking paper, etc cames with this acid free paper so they won't crease in transportation so my friends supplier gets loads of it so I can have as much as I want for free. Can't beat that. I've already used it for the Noah piece and I really like it, it's as hard as foam core but thinner, it doesn't fold when you lace the piece.

Otherwise I haven't done to much stitching, I'm almost finished with the box for Karen. Haven't had time to sit down and work on it in peace though. DH had to leave for India for a couple of meetings. He's not thrilled, he hasn't been there before and had to take lots of shots and pills. And it's a though trip, it's far away and he's just going to stay 2 days. But he won't go back into work when he gets back so that means a longer Christmas break.

We had a lot of games and one practice here yesterday so I had to scuttle kids around and try to keep a super active 3 year old of fields/courts during the games. They all did good though, one tie and one win so I think everyone was happy especially since I took them swimming for an hour after the basket ball game. Our YMCA has a great pool with a walk in on one side and both a small and big water slide so all the kids really enjoy that.

Then we finished the day off with a Christmas movie and lots of popcorn which I have all over the floor still. Hate that crackling sound when you walk over it. The movie was a disappointment, Christmas with the Kranks. It had a couple of my favorite actors in it so I thought it would be really funny. A friend of mine dropped by and watched it with us and she was in agreement.

The kids Christmas picture 2006

Noah's Ark JBW Designs 12 - 12 -2006


Finally stitching again!

And I have a finish! It's Noah's Ark from JBW Designs and I really like the way it turned out. Somehow I always think that these designs are going to be really small since the pattern cards are so small and delicate so I'm always so surprised by the end result.

I got a wood box that I just finished painting in a white wash, when it's painted I'm going to put this on top of the box,line it and give it to Karen for Christmas. It's the first time I tried this finishing technique so hopefully it's going to turn out nice.

Otherwise we are busy with Holiday parties, I'm sending out cards this week and are wrapping all the gifts. It seems like everything is starting to come together now! I added the kids Christmas picture that went out with card too.

I'm still not stitching a lot, I think that's why I haven't updated the blog for a while. This is just such a busy time of year for us and this year is worse then ever since DS's soccer is not taking a winter break this year. They have an indoor complex where they play and he's playing at least one game per week and then they have 3 practices per week. Add to that basket ball for DD and they are both in swimming and that's how our time flies by!!

Well, at least at this pace I'm not bored!

Yesterday (when youngest DD was in her KDO program) I was out shopping like crazy. I think I can start wrapping the gifts for Sweden and maybe mail that package off this week. It's gifts for 6 people there including birthdays so I have had a hard time getting that one together. And I'm almost done with the New Zealand package too. That one has been fun to shop for.

To my disappointment I think it will be really hard to find the new Nintendo Wii for DS by Christmas. I hit all the stores where I thought I might have a chance but no luck. At least my 11 year old seems to understand how hard it is to find it and the worse scenario is going to be a IOU note in the stocking and we'll just pick it up for him when it's available in stores. Seems like it's going to be easier to find it after the 20th this month so maybe he won't have to wait to long. I'm getting him some books and games, just little things so he will find some neat stuff under the tree.

I get the feeling that if he knows that it's going to be his soon he's happy!

Then I got this crazy idea to start painting too. I started in the entry from the garage and then continued over one wall in the kitchen too see how the paint went with the cabinet colors. Seems like it's working out fine so I'm putting the final coat on today. The color is Ryegrass from Behr, it's a very olive green color. I'm not sure when I can do the eating nook but it would be nice to do another big section before Christmas. But maybe that's wishful thinking;).