Happy Easter

I know wrong month and wrong holiday but look how close I am to being done with Lucy. I wanted to finish her today but work was busy and I did not have time. I will finish her this weekend and post a final picture. The background was great to work on while visiting my parents over the Thanksgiving break.

Over Thanksgiving I did get to go to Needlepoint in Paradise. I bought a few threads for Fred and Ginger and a nice big project bag. I also drove up north to Port Charlotte and visited The Golden Needle. I had never been to this shop. It is mainly cross stitch. The store had a good selection of patterns and tons of beautiful linen. The owner told me that she was providing the store at EGA next summer. I did not buy much at this store just because I did not need anything.

Like the holiday background? This is about the extent of my holiday decorating this year. We decided not to put up the tree. It is just a pain in the a$$ with no real good reason to put it up. We are going to parties on the weekends leading up to Christmas, we are not having a Christmas party, I will be traveling between Christmas and New Year's, and I don't have many presents up north. Most of my shopping was done in Naples and I left them there. I am not being a bah-hum-bug, I just really do not get all that fired up about decorating. I will hang some of my needlepoint ornaments around and I put two Christmas tree cross stitch pictures up in place of the Halloween pictures that were still sitting around.

It is supposed to snow this weekend so it will be a good time to stitch. I may go shopping with a friend tomorrow and DH's cousins are coming over tonight for drinks.

Happy stitching.

I really should not talk about my pathetic stitching progress but I wanted to post something before the holiday. Yesterday I needed something brainless to work on so I worked on the large mushroom that is part of Beautie Spot. That went ok until I got bored with my DVR and decided to get a manicure, pedicure and eyebrow wax. Now I have pretty sparkly toes for the holiday.

Margie wanted me to post the bunny. She took a field trip to my desk and helped me figure out the leaves on this canvas. They are a raised closed herringbone. It is a pretty neat stitch for leaves. They are done in a sparkly, chartreuse Kreinik braid.

Here is my attempt at finishing. I really do not enjoy finishing and it really should be left up to the professionals. I had to do this one myself because I have an ornament exchange in a couple of weeks and just did not have time to get it finished any other way. My finishing skills are far from good but sometimes you have to make do.

I am all ready to take off for the holiday. I will get to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather in Florida. I still need to gather my projects and pack my carry-on entertainment but that is fun packing. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with lots of good food and time for stitching.

This is my latest finish. Since I have so few finishes, this is exciting. I am trying to get some of my stitching done for the holiday's so I can send them off to a finisher and have them back before I need them. This is a La-D-Da pattern from the Just Cross Stitch ornament preview magazine. This is some of my tea dyed fabric from Joann's. I believe it is 32 count and I stitched this over one using Fall Maple from Artfabric. I am going to have this made into a needle book for a friend. I am also going to stitch one of the motif's so I can have a matching scissor fob made. This is an easy project and only took me two evenings. I am thinking about stitching it again for an exchange. I have some Vicki Clayton thread in red that would make a beautiful Christmas ornament. I would also like to stitch this on some really nice linen. This crap from Joann's is all I have until I make my way to one of the cross stitch shops or get online and order something.

The bunny is my travel project. It has been hanging out in my stitching bag for a couple of years. I want to get this done and out of the bag. It is cute & colorful. This is a punch needle project by Charlotte Dudney done in DMC floss. Let me tell you, punch needle eats thread. The pattern suggests using Weeks Dye Works for this pattern. Unless you consider punch needle projects heirloom pieces, buy DMC. I think I priced out the threads and it was going to be something like $40.00. It takes 20 skeins of floss. This project is more an effort in threading the punch needle rather than fun do.

This weekend we are going to be in a car a lot. I am not sure if I will finish my punch needle project or work on something more fun. I think it is going to be in the 90's until next week so that should make me stay in and stitch some.

A happy thought...We are half way through the work week!! Kelly