The Holidays Are Coming!

It's been a busy two weeks here since I last posted, with lots to show. If you're ready for a picture heavy post, read on!!

For those of you who do not know it, I am a foodie. I like lots of different foods and I love to try new recipes. Now that you know this fact about me, I have to admit that I have an absolute favorite food. Ice cream!! I will by pass cookies, cakes, brownies, pretty much any other dessert in order to have some ice cream. Growing up there was always ice cream in the house, and when we were little going to Carvel or Baskin Robbins for a frozen treat was a big family outing. So, when I was browsing a stitching group that I belong to on Facebook and someone posted that she was working on a HAED called "Sundae Delight" I have to admit that I my interest was piqued. Sundae, with that spelling? That means ice cream!

Once I took one look, it was all over. I had to have it! It came in the mail the other day, but I will be strong and will not start it yet. I am thinking that I will wait until I get my holiday stitching done.

Speaking of holiday stitching, there seems to be alot of that going on around here lately. Shall we start with Halloween, since it's the closest?

The Halloween quadrielle that I started at the LNS almost two weeks ago is half way done.

I am enjoying this one alot, but I have a major complaint about it. It's a kit that uses DMC floss. Great, right? Ummmm...no, not really. There are three shades of orange and three shades of green, all of which are only a shade or two apart from each other, and all of which had to be separated. There was no indication how many strands of each color we were supposed to have. To be honest, when we started the project at the shop we spent more time trying to separate the floss colors than we stitched that morning. This is the BIG reason I don't do alot of kits.

Once we got the flosses separated into the right colors (at least we think we did) the stitching has moved along pretty quickly and it's really a cute design. I can't wait to finish the stitching and put it together.

Anyone out there working on Christmas things? This seems to be the time of year that I start ornaments. I got very few done last year and I want to change that this year. So far, I seem to be off to a good start.

I saw these cute little candy cane ornaments in The Stitchery catalogue and I thought they were just what I wanted to work on this year.


I think that I am going to make one for M and one for Z and add their names to it so they each have their own candy cane from Mom. Yes, this was a kit, but at least it was easy to separate the floss colors!

Last year I bought all of the LHN ornaments that they put out. And did I stitch any? Well, I stitched two, but did nothing with them. So that left 10 sitting in my stash, doing absolutely nothing. I pulled out this little snowman to work on.

I got it almost done in a short amount of time. The Christmas tree needs some beads, but I don't have enough of them, so when I head out to the LNS tonight I will pick them up and get this one finished.

The Mickey Mouse ornament is finished! I just love it! Well, I love pretty much anything Mickey, so should we be surprised that I love this?

The red beads were actually supposed to be French knots, but, as we all know, French knots are just not my specialty, so I added the red beads. Much easier for me, and they add a little bit of something pretty to it. I bought adorable Disney Christmas fabric to finish it with, so once I start the Minnie ornament I will finish them both.

Yesterday I had to clear my whole day for the oil burner repair man. They gave me a window when the guy would be here to fix the burner: between 8 and 6! Really? The whole day is my window? So, since I had to plan to be home I decided to spend my time becoming reacquainted with my sewing machine.

Last year I managed to stitch these Christmas trees, but like the ornaments, I did nothing with them. When I was struggling last year these were good for me to stitch because they were one color and required very little deep thought. I had even bought the fabric to make the wall hanging, and it sat there on top of my sewing table, doing nothing. That changed yesterday.

I forgot how much I love using my sewing machine. It was nice to be reminded.

September Is A Beautiful Month!

Well, for the most part it is, anyway. September brings the start of school. Both M and Z made it through the first week and now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of the new school year. M came home on the first day and told me that other kids said that his science teacher is supposed to be really mean, but he said to me that he didn't thing that she was. I told him, "It's only the first day of school. She hasn't had anything to get mean about yet!"

This morning my friend, Christine, and I went to Lazy Daisy for a class that the owner was running. The project is called a "quadrielle". I've seem them, but I've never done one before, mostly because I take one look at it and get intimidated about putting it together. When she offered the class we jumped in.

The one for the class is by The Sweetheart Tree and it's a Halloween quadrielle. We started working on the stitching in the shop today and we have to have the stitching finished by October 29, which is when we take it back to the shop for assembly. Whip stitch? How the heck to I do that?

This is the first square. It still needs backstitching and some beading. We'll have to see how this comes out. Maybe if someone walks me through it I will be able to do it successfully!

The HAEDs are never out of my mind for long, either. Sampler Letter is really starting to look like a P!

Page 15 of the pandas with lots more blues:

Think someday I might actually finish this?

Tomorrow is the 1oth anniversary of September 11. M has been talking about this in his social studies class and he came home the other day and asked me what I remember about that day. I told him, "Everything." I told him that he saw all of it unfold right along with me because I was not working on that day and we were together with lots of errands to run that day. I remember being in my car listening to ABC news being simulcast on the radio and a reporter telling Peter Jennings that the South Tower was gone and I remember him asking the reporter, "What do you mean it's gone? What happened?" I had a hair appointment that day, and I remember sitting in the hair dresser's chair when the North Tower fell. The man who cuts my hair was devastated because he had just lost his father and his father was one of the many electricians that did the wiring for the towers when they were being built. He felt like he was losing a piece of his father all over again.

I remember hearing that a plane crashed in the Pentagon and that a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. I could not comprehend what was happening to us. When my alarm went off the next morning I remember thinking to myself, "Maybe it was all a very bad dream," but as soon as I heard the DJ's on the radio talking I knew that it had not been a dream. It was real and we had alot of work ahead of us if we were going to get through it.

The people who attacked us that day had very dark souls. While they succeeded in bringing down the towers and in ending the lives of thousands of innocents on that day, I am proud to say that they did not crush us. Our spirit was bruised, but we are recovering. Today there are memorials to the deceased in the footprints of the fallen towers, and New York is building a new tower in lower Manhattan. It will be the tallest building in the United States when it's completed.

I am proud to be an American. No terrorist can ever take that away from me.