I have about 15 minutes left until I leave my cold little cubicle for the work holiday party and I won’t be back until next year. Woohoo! I have a ton of baking to do this weekend, so I may or may not be online at all until after Christmas. With that in mind, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas!
Thanks to Sharon, that is! She was my sender for the Birthday/Christmas club and she spoiled me terribly. Not only did she stitch a sweet Christmas tree design with snowman button finished in a tuck pillow, but she threw in a bunch of extras, including fat quarters of fabric, JBW Designs charts, WDW floss, chocolates, a bookmark, note cards and post-it notes.
I’ll send you to Sharon’s blog entry for pictures.
I am so lucky to have had Sharon as my sender for this year. She was very generous with both gift packages and I hope she had as much fun putting everything together as I did receiving it. 😉
Thank you, Sharon!
As seen on Anna’s blog:
Both, but mostly wrapping paper.
Artificial. I can’t see sacrificing a tree for my decorating purposes. Plus, it keeps us from worrying about Phoebe getting into dropped needles or the tree water.
Sometime after Terry’s birthday on Dec. 8th.
Sometime in January.
Yep. I need to buy some the next time we’re at the grocery store, actually. I usually add some nutmeg to it.
Either my Easy Bake oven or my Hippity Hop. If you don’t know what it is, a Hippity Hop was a large ball with a handle on it that you could sit on and bounce around everywhere.
No.
My father-in-law. He buys everything he wants, when he wants it. I make him Terry’s problem. 😉
Probably my mother. I can usually give her something homemade, plus something retail.
Snail mail. Though I tend to run out of cards.
More like worst set of Christmas gifts received. One year, after my parents divorced, I gave a whole list to my dad and he didn’t get me one single thing on the list! Sorry, Dad, I love you, but I was really bummed.
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
Early fall. Can’t start too early, unless it’s a stitched item, because you run the risk of the recipient buying the gift for themselves.
Probably, but I can’t remember anything specific.
Everything. 😉 Peanut butter kiss cookies.
Multi-colored, please.
I don’t think I have a favorite.
Stay home. When we bought the house, we declared that everyone would come to us. 🙂
Yep. The Rudolph song is forever burned into my brain.
A star, of course. But someday it will be an angel with hardanger wings and gown.
Both. Terry and I open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. We open presents with my parents in the morning, then presents with his parents when they arrive.
The over-commercialization of Christmas. Stores start carrying Christmas items way too early!
Favorite ornament theme would be handmade. I was lax this year in finishing items, but I woud eventually like to have the majority of my ornaments be handmade.
Turkey. Since Terry’s allergic to poultry, this is about the only time of year that I get turkey!
To be happy.
I want to thank everyone who took a few minutes to leave a comment on my post about the “blahs.” There was some sunlight today, which I think helped a little bit. But, more importantly, all of your encouragement has been uplifting. I’m still struggling, but I know that my mood will come around eventually. I really need to get decorating for Christmas and pay my business accounting some attention, so I hope that I’m back to normal soon!
This SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:
What tips would you give to a new stitcher to help her stitch faster and neater while still keeping it enjoyable?
I’m going to deviate from the norm on this one and say that the key is just to enjoy yourself. Yes, it would be nice if your stitches all cross the same way, but this craft isn’t about perfection. It’s about allowing yourself to unwind and relax. Let your needle hang freely every once in a while so that the thread can unwind, especially if you’re starting to get knots. Otherwise, have fun doing something you love!
This SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:
Do you do anything special to your threads before putting them through your fabric to make them more manageable?
This is an easy one. The answer is no. I don’t even use Thread Heaven on my metallics anymore, though I might have to get back to that practice.
Yes, it would seem that The Blahs have settled in and made themselves quite at home in my psyche. As I’m sure many of you have already deduced from my lack of posting lately, I’m not feeling so hot mentally. Much of it is work-related, but I’m not getting any enjoyment from stitching lately, either. You know you’re in bad shape when stitching seems like a chore. 🙁
On the work front, I’m being not-so-gently nudged out of my current position and have had to find a spot for myself. This should prove to be interesting, but I’m kind of riding the fence in between the two right now. I’m running out of work to do in my current position and they are not ready for me to move into my new one yet.
I’m bored. I don’t deal well with being bored. And it’s a pervasive boredom that has made its way into my personal life, as well. I’m bored with my stitching, and yet, I want to keep working through my WIPs, so what ends up happening is that I don’t stitch at all. I’m guessing that I might have to allow myself a small new start or two in order to get my mojo back.
It’s amazing how extensive depression can become; weaving its way through your entire life. I’ve even had thoughts about closing One Star’s Light. It’s that bad, but I know better than to make big decisions like that in my current state of mental health. Never make big decisions when you’re not feeling yourself. You may come to regret them later.
In other news, Terry is working on finishing our basement so that we’ll have more room in the house. Once finished, I’ll finally be able to move the exercise equipment into the basement, along with the computers, freeing up more room for my crafts, plus allowing us to have a separate music room. Terry has a good chunk of the drywall up now and the bathroom will be ready for tile flooring later this week.
We decided that each of us is having too much trouble buying presents for the other for Christmas, so we decided to get ourselves a combined gift instead. We hit an online Black Friday sale at Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought ourselves a combination pool table, with air hocky and table tennis capabilities. It will be perfect for the basement, but we’ll need to make room for it for Christmas so that we can play, even if its not finished down there.
So, that’s about it for me. That’s what I’m up to. Oh, I started with a new psychiatrist whom I absolutely adore. We’re working on changing the meds, which is going to take a while. I’m working my way up on a new drug called Lamictal that should help with the depression, but it will take 7 weeks or more to reach theraputic levels. After that, we’ll work me off of the Abilify and Zyprexa that the other doctor had me on. This new doc and I see exactly eye-to-eye and I am really grateful for that. She’s definitely worth the money it costs to see a doctor who is out of network.
I hope to be feeling a bit better before Christmas gets here. At this point, I haven’t even put a lick of decorations up. But, we are going to buy a new artificial tree tomorrow. Maybe once that’s up, I’ll feel more into the holiday season. I hope all of you are doing well and getting into the joy of the holidays!
When you have to frog out stitches, do you reuse that thread or do you start over with a new strand?
It depends on what kind of frogging has taken place. If it was marathon frogging or the kind that you have to use a seam ripper for, then I don’t reuse. If it was just a few stitches or the thread is still intact, I will reuse it. The bottom line is not to reuse fiber that has been roughed up or is the worse for wear and looks it!
Finish Fall Dragon and Send Back to Outi Work on The Sweetheart Tree – Pretty Posies Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha