Tale of a Shooting Star… | Random Thoughts from a Creative Mind

2005 Stitching Accomplishments

Posted on December 29, 2005 by Jenna Magee

I guess I’m not good with peer pressure. Everyone is doing it, so now I will too. 😉 Here is my list(s) of stitching completions and finishes (finish-finish) for the year:

Midnight Arabesque (Cindy Valentine Designs)
The Trilogy – Bundle of Joy (for The Silver Needle)
Lizzie*Kate – April Stamp Flip-It (for The Silver Needle)
Jamie Lynn Ornament (Twisted Oaks Designs)
Loretta Renee Ornament (Twisted Oaks Designs)
Nita Marie Ornament (Twisted Oaks Designs)

Maltese Cross Ornament
Peace Ornament
Teenie Graduation Announcement (framed)
Friends Count Bookmark
Nordic Needle Hardanger Freebie (finished as a coaster)
My Band Sampler (finished as my contribution to the Friendship Tapestry)
Close At Heart (finished as a needleroll)
Pincushion Heart (finished as a pincushion… heart)
Teeny Tiny Friendship Bag #1 (finished as a tiny drawstring bag)
Teeny Tiny Friendship Bag #2 (finished as a tiny drawstring bag)
Alicia’s Banner (finished as a bellpull)
Hardanger Scissors Fobs #1 and #2 (finished as a tuffet)
Cute as a Button (finished as a flanged pillow)
Russian Inspired Ornament
Heirloom Heart (finished as a heart-shaped ornament)
Christmas Hearts Bellpull
Never Too Big Ornament
Noel Birdhouse Ornament
Christmas Poinsettias Ornament
Christmas Jewels Ornament
Penguin Hugs Ornament
Sapphire Star Ornament
Christmas Hearts Ornament
Christmas Rose Ornament
In a Stable Ornament
Love… Was Born at Christmas Ornament
Pansy Ornament
Cardinal Snowflake Ornament
Love Heart Ornament
Baby’s 1st Christmas Ornament #1
Baby’s 1st Christmas Ornament #2
Santa’s Trimmings Ornament
Merry Christmas Bellpull
Victorian Christmas Tree (finished as a potted, stuffed tree)
Fairy Violets (finished as a boxtop)
SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange Gift #1
SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange Gift #2

Wow, guess I did far better than I had imagined. 😀 Now, if I can have at least one large finish in the list in 2006, I’ll be ecstatic!

Posted in Stitching | 6 Comments

SBQ – December 28, 2005

Posted on December 28, 2005 by Jenna Magee

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

Not very well. That’s pretty much my answer, in a nutshell. I haven’t had much time for stitching this month, between the holidays and the headaches (dreaded “h” words!), so I can’t speak to this one. Usually, though, I stitch while watching TV at night, plus on the weekends. But, I do try to balance out the weekend stitching with laundry and other such work around the house. And I make sure I eat first. 😉

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 2 Comments

Caution: Knitting Novice Ahead!

Posted on December 26, 2005 by Jenna Magee

Well, that’s it. I’ve learned how to knit (again). My mom originally showed me how to knit as a child (years after I had learned cross stitch) and I remember knitting a pair of slippers for myself out of a nice variegated yarn. So, while my dad and sister were finishing up the dishes after Christmas dinner last night, Mom pulled out two pairs of needles, a skein of yarn to play with and set to reteaching me how to knit. I can now cast on, do knit, purl, stockinette and ribbed stitches (okay, the latter two are just rows made from combinations of the only two stitches in this game – knit and purl) and I can successfully bind off and weave my ends into the finished piece. After some practice with larger needles last night (she even gave me a nice, slick pair of 10 1/2 needles, so I’m up to 5 different pairs already! :twisted:), I fussed about getting the proper tension, so she told me that I wouldn’t be able to get the proper tension with the sportweight yarn we were practicing with using a pair of 10 1/2 needles. She told me I should try size 6 instead.

Tonight I sat down with my size 6 needles, the same practice yarn and cast on and knit a few rows three different times until I was happy with the tension and regularity of all of the stitches. Then I went through a practice round of the exact pattern that I will be using for the scarf when I’m ready, bound off the piece, wove the ends in and… VOILA!

The tension is fairly regular, but there is a hole where I must have dropped a stitch without realizing it, so when I work on the scarf, I will need to be looking back more regularly at what I’ve already done to be able to pick up mistakes like that. The only thing that I haven’t learned is how to start a new ball of yarn, especially since the scarf calls for two. I asked my mom and since she was never really that into knitting (she prefers crochet), she wasn’t exactly sure, so I’ll have to see if at least one of the several sets of instructions that I have cover this part. If not, I’ll have to drop an email to Christine for a little bit of assistance. 🙂

Posted in Stitching | 9 Comments

Merry Christmas! (A Long, Rambling Post)

Posted on December 25, 2005 by Jenna Magee

To all of my beloved internet friends:

I have been so fortunate to come in contact with so many incredible people via my blog this year. I feel thrilled and privileged to know each and every one of you. Please know that you are forever in my heart and in my thoughts, especially during this holiday season.

I wish for each and every one of you to have a wonderful, beautiful Christmas day, surrounded by family and friends, rejoicing in one another’s company and glad for one brief period of time together, as you never know when it may be the last that you see of one another.

Having opened our gifts last night under our beautifully lit Christmas tree decorated solely with hand-made ornaments, those given as gifts and even ones that I made as a child, I was fortunate to receive many delightful gifts. However, the two that meant the most to me are the ones from my recently departed grandfather. For those of you who didn’t know him (and that would be just about everyone reading this blog), my grandpap was a very talented commercial artist who worked even during his retirement. He made me many wonderful things as I was growing up, including a wooden basket which sits behind me as I type this, painted and decorated with my and Terry’s names on it, in my favorite color, purple. He also made banners and posters for me when I excelled at various music competitions during my high school years. He took me in and always treated me as his very own granddaughter, even though he never met me until I was 14 years old and my mother was remarried to the man I now affectionately and proudly refer to as my dad. He and my grandmother have always been very involved in my life since the time they entered it and I took great pride in and motivation from my grandfather’s talents. He did everything from dressing windows in a department store many, many decades ago to painting go-carts at a local amusement spot to painting all of the signage (large and small, including the large one that still stands atop a tall post to mark my dad’s first hardware store) for my dad’s stores to painting murals on the hallway walls of the local shopping mall. He did it all, with great talent and panache.

I know this seems like an odd trip down memory lane; however, the point to all of this is that he had an immense studio in the basement of their home which my dad and uncle have been faced with the task of trying to clean out. I was nearly in tears last night when I saw two presents for me tagged as being from my grandfather. My dad picked out, packed up and wrapped a wonderful set of colored pencils, most of which were never even sharpened, plus a set of heavy weight cards and envelopes which were intended for use with watercolors, but I could even use with my rubber stamping. I will treasure them always and fondly remember my grandfather every time I use them.

I regret that I never took the opportunity to tell Pap how much he meant to me, but I hope that somehow he knows. And to make sure I never make that mistake again, I wrote Gram a note several weeks ago, letting her know exactly what I would want her and Pap to know about how important a part of my life they have been and how grateful I am to have and have had them in my life for over half of my existence now.

On a less macabre note, I received some wonderful Christmas gifts, including finishing off my collection of currently available paperbacks from the Monica Ferris needlecraft mysteries series, a Lorri Birmingham stumpwork scissors fob kit, three Shepherd’s Bush scissors fob kits complete with matching scissors, a Daylite uplight for working with dark fabrics and a portable, handheld Sudoko game player. I also received my special daughter gift from Dad. Each year, he hand picks a sweater for each of his daughters. I have not yet decided if I will wear this year’s sweater today or wear last year’s. He always picks such lovely, feminine pieces for me. Perhaps he sees something buried deep within me that I don’t see or acknowledge normally? Being a female in the male-dominated field of computer science tends to diminish one’s sense of self and femininity. 😉

For those of you who were wondering, the Fairy Violets box was a big hit, as everyone expected. I was also able to surprise Terry with many gifts this year. It’s a good thing he followed his instinct not to buy me any video games or we would have ended up with numerous duplicates. That’s always a good sign, right? 🙂 Though I made him promise to stop buying himself things much earlier in the year this coming year so that he can build a proper wishlist. This is the second year in a row where I totally had to make up things off of the top of my head to buy for him and it’s very exhausting work.

Well, time for me to go. I’m fighting a nasty headache from doing FAR too many things yesterday, but the good news is that the turkey is nearly ready to go into the oven, as is the lamb, I have the entire cooking process mapped out as to what time which things needs to happen (this is for Terry’s benefit since he’ll do most of the cooking; I’ve spent the past two days baking and cleaning, so I get a little bit of a break), the table is already set, with swan napkins folded by Terry last night, and in about 5 hours, we’ll be sitting down to a dinner of turkey, lamb, garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, stuffing balls, dinner rolls, cranberry jelly and a selection of pickles and olives.

In the meantime, my mom has promised to teach me to knit while she’s here, so sometime today I will be starting my scarf! Woohoo!

Again, Merry Christmas to you, everyone! I hope you have/had a fabulous day and are stuffed with food and happinesss. I know that I will be! And to my friends who are Jewish, I will try to post a special Happy Hanukkah message to you tomorrow as you begin the festival of lights. Shalom! Love and hugs to all!

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

A Stitcher’s Christmas Eve

Posted on December 24, 2005 by Jenna Magee

Posted originally to the Wagon BB, I pulled this down to post on just such a special occasion.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas to all of my friends!

Twas the night before Christmas, and, oh, I was weary.
My stitching unfinished, my eyes getting bleary.
The stockings weren’t finished, the chimney was bare.
And I knew that morning soon would be there.

My children and husband were tucked in their beds,
But visions of backstiches ran through my head.
I’d stitched ornaments and presents and gifts by the ton,
And now, I was finally, almost, almost done.

As I poised my needle for one more backstitch,
I heard something outside that made my hand twitch.
I jumped up from my stitching, and flew to the door,
Pressed my eye to the peephole, tip-toe off the floor.

My stitching forgotten, I peered into the night.
When suddenly, I got a terrible fright.
On my porch appeared Santa, holding his sack.
He knocked softly, and I took a giant step back.

I unlocked the deadbolt, and let Santa in,
He entered and gave a mischievous grin.
“Hope you don’t mind if I come in the door?”
“Coming down the chimney can be quite a chore.”

He said “You’re up late. Still working I see.”
“Do you know how tired you’re going to be?”
“I know, Santa,” I said, with a sigh,
“But I’m still backstitching the stars in the sky,”

“And the fields on that stocking look blobby you know,
I need to backstitch the drifts in the snow.
I’ve been stitching and stitching and stitching, no rest.
I just tried to finish stitching too much, I guess.”

“I know what you mean,” he said with a smile.
“This is my busiest time of the year, by a mile.”
He stooped down by the tree, and he opened his sack,
And began to pull presents out of his pack.

“I’ve got some things here I think you might like,
An oak stitching frame, and a brand new Ott-Light.
A bundle of floss, and a great big mat cutter,”
I smiled and felt my heart go a-flutter.

He put down gifts for us all, then he waved his right hand.
“Go to bed,” he said, glancing at my floor stand.
He gave me a wink, and stepped out the door.
I just stood there a moment, glued to the floor.

After he’d left, I turned back to my chair,
Picked up the stockings, and started to stare.
The backstitching was done! The stars lit the sky!
And on my son’s stocking angels sung on high.

I ran to thank Santa for this final gift,
And watched as his sleigh started to lift.
I heard him exclaim as he pulled out of sight,
“Merry stitching to all, and to all a good night!”

Posted in Stitching | 2 Comments

A Christmas Meme

Posted on December 23, 2005 by Jenna Magee

As seen on Christine’s blog:

What is your favourite Christmas character?

I see Christine’s Grinch and raise her the Grinch’s little dog! I love that poor little thing, with the antler strapped to its head, hanging off of his harness over the side of the mountain. Poor, faithful hound! I think that’s how I feel sometimes around Christmas. Like I’m hanging by my harness off the top of a mountain, thinking to myself “how did I get into this mess?” 😉

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

Either Holiday Inn or Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. The former is a classic, with wonderful dancing and singing, and the latter just brings out the kid in me. I should buy it for next year, if it can be had. I just love some of the musical numbers, like “Winter Was Warm” sung in that lovely contralto voice and the thieves stealing the bedclothes off of Scrooge’s bed racously singing at the top of their lungs the chorus “La… la… la la-la la-la!” I just went out and added it to my Amazon shopping cart. 😆

Is there a Christmas book you read every year or are there Christmas themed books you enjoy?

No, not really. We don’t have children, so there is no traditional book to be read or anything. And I get so stressed by preparations that I don’t have the time to read anyway!

What is the one thing on Christmas day that you can’t live without (basically it wouldn’t be Christmas without it)?

I’m not sure about this one. I would say family, but Terry is my family, so as long as I had him, it would still be Christmas. I really do enjoy having a tree all decorated and lit up at night, with the presents laid out underneath. That signals Christmas for me, so I guess that’s my answer!

What is your favourite Christmas memory?

Um… okay. You have to realize that you’re talking to the person who doesn’t have a lot of childhood memories. So, at this point, I think this answer would be the look on my dad’s face when he opened his gift last Christmas. See below. 🙂

What is the most thoughtful gift you have ever been given?

Well, I like to think that all of my gifts are thoughtful! Whoops, missed the word “been” in that question, but I’ll continue on without it. I think the best gift that I’ve given to date was the table tennis set that I gave my dad last year. He was like a little kid again; he’s so funny. We even set it up downstairs in the basement and were chasing down errant balls from amongst the clutter and cobwebs. He and I have so much fun playing table tennis together! He and his cousin Ingrid (with whom he was pretty close) used to play together as kids, so I took it into my head last year to surprise him with a portable set. It was a smashing success (pun intended) and is always a nice bonding experience for us when we play.

What is the one thing about Christmas you could live without?

How about two? The commercialism and the stress. There’s too much emphasis on the gifting portion of Christmas and not enough emphasis on the precious time spent with friends and family. To me, that was what Christmas really is about – taking time out from our hectic lives to spend some quality time with our loved ones.

Have you created any Christmas traditions with your own family and if so what is it?

We haven’t really created any traditions yet, per se. Terry and I have followed the tradition that my parents started when I was little of having our own private Christmas the night before. Other than that, we seem to have developed an ad hoc tradition of me in the kitchen on Christmas Eve, baking tons of cookies with my dad helping. It’s nice because I get to spend some time with my dad, but not so nice because I spend all day on my feet!

What is your favourite Christmas song?

Wow, I really had to think about this one. I even dragged out my Time-Life CD sets to see which ones topped my list. It was a tough call, but I have to say the Hallelujah chorus from Messiah. There would be nothing like hearing that sung by a full chorus, with all parts fully represented, resonating in a huge cathedral somewhere. It would just blow my mind.

What is the strangest gift you received or gave?

I think the strangest gifts I’ve ever received (and absolutely LOVE to this day!) was in a Pollyanna several years ago at work. One of the gag gifts was an animated, stuffed reindeer that sings Grandma Got Runover By a Reindeer when you press its paw. Once I got it, I fought to keep it, and now it is one of my favorite decorations! He was finally out of juice this year when I pulled him out, so I had to change the batteries and now he’s back to his wonderful, animated self again. I’m such a little kid at heart… 😀

If you could spend one Christmas anywhere else in the world where would you choose?

Seeing as London is one of my favorite destinations in the world, I would like to spend Christmas in London some day. I bet Harrod’s is an absolute treat around the holidays! Piccadilly Circus is probably all lit up. The nicer neighborhoods probably have their homes all decorated. It would be nice to see.

What do you all do on Christmas Eve, anything special or fun?

See previous post about baking cookies with my dad on Christmas Eve, but that’s not an all-inclusive family event, so I’m not sure that it counts. We’re going to play board games tomorrow night, if I get my way, so maybe that will become a new, fun tradition?

Posted in Meme | 3 Comments

Fairy Violets Boxtop

Posted on December 22, 2005 by Jenna Magee

Quite possibly the last “finish” finish of this year, I have just mounted Fairy Violets into a box top and wrapped it up as a Christmas gift for my mother. I’ve been putting this one off for WAY too long, mostly because I just could not seem to get it mounted straight. It still looks a little wonky to me, but I think it might be an optical illusion due to the octagonal shape of the box. This box is one of my many purchases from the Sudberry House garage sale this past August. It looks like they’ve now discontinued this box, which is a real shame because it’s gorgeous! 🙁

Posted in Stitching | 8 Comments

I’m Tired!

Posted on December 20, 2005 by Jenna Magee

It was a lost weekend for us. Friday at work ended early with me and my fellow activity committee members going to the hotel early to setup for our work Christmas party. We had a really good time! Terry thought I looked really nice in my new black pinstripe pantsuit with a hot pink camisole. And I danced, which I haven’t done in a while (over two years?), at least not in public. Apparently, I drew some attention. I don’t get dressed up very often. And no one realizes that this white woman can dance. I was really feeling in my element – my inner, hidden extrovert came out. Of course, as always happens when I have an extroverted episode, I dropped dead from exhaustion the next day. I slept for hours during the day on Saturday. And I won’t talk about what things did for my head…

But anyway, I’m trying not to think about what all needs to be done before company arrives on Friday night. The tree is up and decorated and looks so nice in the front room, which is a first for us this year. It was SO nice to come home and see that lovely lit tree sparkling in the window as we drove up. I bought new blankets for the spare beds today and an airbed for the craft room that we inflated this weekend. So, I need to wash the blankets, finish washing the china, wash the crystal stemware, wash the silverware, wrap the gifts, finish decorating the house, continue cleaning up, etc. Yeah, okay, there’s still a lot to do. We have Friday off and I think I’m going to take off Thursday, as well, to start my baking early.

So, I’ll stop writing now and get some sleep!

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

And the Winners Are…

Posted on December 15, 2005 by Jenna Magee

Drumroll, please! I am sending out many packages today, some of which are surprises and some of which contain the ornaments that I put up for grabs. To keep you guessing, I will list the names of the (non-surprise) recipients, but I won’t reveal which ornament has been sent. 😈

The following people should be on the lookout for packages, as appropriate for your location and distance from Pennsylvania: Anne S., Lelia, Dawn, Carol S., Heather R., Jo and Barbara. Anne and Barbara, I am sending your packages airmail, so if I’m really lucky, they might make their way to you before Christmas. 🙂 Enjoy!

For those who weren’t picked, I greatly apologize and feel really guilty! I will try to make more little things to give away next Christmas because I hate not being able to send something to everyone!!

Posted in Stitching | 10 Comments

Last Ornament, If You Could Call It That

Posted on December 15, 2005 by Jenna Magee

This photo is for Karen V. My first attempt at a potted Christmas tree finish, as inspired by her photos. It’s a bit rough and I have a long way to go to figuring this whole thing out, but hey, it’s a start! 😉

Sorry, the colors of the stitched piece, especially the beads, are washed out by the flash, but it’s after 12:30 AM here and this needs to be packed up to ship out tomorrow to my Dad in Florida, so this is as good as it gets.

Time to pack this baby up and get to bed!

Oh, and a P.S. to Christine V., if you’re reading, I picked up the knitting needles and another skein of yarn tonight. I’m ready to start knitting myself a scarf in the new year! 😀

Posted in Stitching | 12 Comments

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