2018 Christmas Ornaments

At our house, we have an annual tradition of choosing our Christmas ornaments from the current Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue. We've been doing this since we married in December 2000, so we have... a lot of ornaments!

Mr. Wonderful's 2018 choice:

I found this neat rusty jingle bell/berry garland at JoAnn Fabrics back in the fall. It's definitely not my style, but I had Mr. Wonderful's ornament choice in mind and thought it would work well. I just cut a few bits and wired them together.

Customized cow! Changed the color and fiddled with the face, and added some fluff to the tail. This is stitched on 28 ct. Natural Brown Undyed linen from Wichelt, with Caron Wildflowers in Cinnabar, Copper, Dark Shadows, Ivy, Natural, and Old Gold. I used a smidgeon of light green for the cat's eyes and a bit of a peachy color for the cow's nose.

And here's my 2018 choice:

This is called the Angel of Generosity and the letters on the stockings are supposed to be "G-I-V-E" but I replaced the letters with the year instead.

I should be able to show my January SAL finish soon, so stay tuned!

A Snowy Weekend

We had our first heavy snowfall over the weekend and it couldn't have been nicer. Just enough snow (7 inches) to make everything pretty and quiet, not enough to cause any trouble.

A little pre-storm baking on Friday.

It started snowing lightly on Saturday afternoon. The texture of the snow was exactly like the pretend snow you can buy for craft projects. It was very dry and very sparkly.

It snowed all Saturday night and all day Sunday.

Saturday morning before the snow started, Mr. Wonderful took me to my LNS. I'm almost finished kitting up all my projects for my Moving Mini Stash (see my previous post) but I needed a few more things. It was bittersweet. I'll probably only be able to visit there one more time before we move--hopefully for Market Day--and I'm going to miss them. Having a LNS is such a blessing. Anyway, as I mentioned last time, I joined a SAL (click on the badge in the right sidebar). I'm working on pink and green Christmas ornaments for my pink tree for my pink and green sewing room! I needed a range of pinks to choose from and chose these. Aren't they pretty? From left to right: GAST Briar Rose, CC Wild Berries, CC Clay Pot, CC Jakey Brown, CC Little House Brown. 

I love green threads (and fabric) so I already have a range of greens to choose from, but I added a couple, along with some sparkly pinks and some touches of lavender.

Stocked up on some of my favorite traditional Christmas greens and reds, since all my Mini Stash projects are Christmas. Here is one of my favorite color combos: GAST Bayberry and GAST Pomegranate.

So that was my weekend. A trip to my LNS and a winter storm. Pretty great. And of course this morning we have the usual gorgeous post-storm "blue morning." Look at that sky!

Last week's moving prep was the entry way, guest bath, laundry area, and coat closet. This week, it's the kitchen. I'm hoping I'll get a little time later in the week to do some finishing. I've finished my January SAL project and I'm halfway through February, plus I've got our 2018 Christmas ornaments that need finishing. Busy week ahead. 

Thanks to everyone for all the kind comments about taking time to stitch while getting ready to move, and even joining a SAL. Y'all understand that stitching is what keeps a lot of us on an even keel! Have a great week, everybody!

What in the world am I doing?

I'm moving in three months, so I...

...joined a SAL?

I did. 

Me: Let's see, I've got 100 things to do in the next three months. Here's my list that's growing by the day. Now I have to remember to...

Also me: Oooo! New SAL! (*runs wildly off into the woods*)

~sigh~

Here's how this happened. If y'all have been here for a while, you know that the week between Christmas and the New Year is my Stitchy Planning Week: the week I look forward to, the week that's all mine, the week I spend playing in my stash and choosing projects for the coming year. It's a tradition I created for myself that I love.

This year's Planning Week was different, however, since we're moving soon. This year I spent the time kitting up projects to see me through until about June. I am not normally a "kitter-upper." I just gather up my supplies for a project and get going, but that gathering up can take me a while, since I'm usually changing fabric and threads. It's time consuming, but I enjoy it. Since I don't really have the luxury of time to play in my stash right now (or for the foreseeable future), I decided to kit up a bunch of projects so they're ready to go, ready to travel, ready to keep me occupied while waiting for quarters and household goods. They're all pretty small (no pressure! quick finishes!) and they're all Christmas (merry! joy!)! 

So! That leads me to this SAL I signed up for. I stumbled across the Christmas Ornie SAL while checking out the sister site (which is Halloween). I noticed the new themes for 2019 and was immediately taken with Theme #3, which is stitching ornaments from back issues of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament magazines. I was attacked by an idea, which is the usual way I have ideas. Last year I bought a Christmas tree for my sewing room... rose gold tinsel. So pretty, and so perfect for my pink/green sewing room. I decided to use this SAL as an excuse opportunity to stitch up a bunch of ornaments for my sewing room tree, using pink and green color conversions! Wow, right? It's almost like I'm not moving soon!

Since I was already kitting up small projects, small CHRISTMAS projects, and since my tree needs ornaments, it seemed logical and not-at-all-nuts to sign up for this SAL. I'm excited about it and really looking forward to starting on my January ornament later today. If you love stitching Christmas, check it out. The host, Kaye, is very nice and she says this is a no-pressure SAL, which is the best kind, of course. She has three themes to choose from this year (or you can do all three if you're Wonder Woman), the other two being #1 The Twelve Days of Christmas and #2 Christmas Carols. I'll be posting my finishes here and over there, as well.

Here's January, all ready to go!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you lots of stitching time and bunches of finishes this year!

Big News!

We

are

FINALLY

MOVING!

Yes! After nearly ten years on the East Coast, the Air Force is finally sending us to a new duty station! Although we're not going home to Texas as we'd hoped, we'll be a lot closer, and we're excited about our new base and Mr. Wonderful's new job.

From January on through the spring, my blogging may be pretty hit or miss, and I might disappear entirely for a bit, but I hope y'all will bear with me and rest assured, I haven't abandoned my blog! Our prayers are that the move goes smoothly, that we have a safe trip, and that we don't have to wait long for quarters. 

Seeking the New Home ~ N.C. Wyeth

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

A Christmas Tea: Tea-Themed Christmas Tree

Welcome to the last day of my annual Christmas Open House! All week I've been sharing tea-themed Christmas ornaments, both stitched and crafted. And today I'm sharing--you knew it was coming!--a tea-themed Christmas tree to display them all! I hope you've got a big cup of tea ready, because I've got lots of pictures to share!
  
Of course, a Christmas tree needs something beautiful at the tippy top. I stitched up Brooke Nolan's Spirit of Holiday Baking Angel (with some modifications) for the top of my tree. 

I gave her brown eyes and changed her hair color from red to golden brown (DMC 433, 435, 436).

I charted up a simple teacup to match the teapot on her tray, and used the same color scheme.

I omitted all of the baking-related items, and the pocket on her apron, but used the pretty motif from the pocket to decorate the apron (red Petite Treasure Braid).

For her wings, I tried something new. Instead of using regular card stock to back the wings, I used heavy glitter paper, with the glitter facing the front of the design. To attach the paper to the wings, I used a thin line of glue around the edge of the wings (on the back of the stitched/beaded border) and in the center of her back to avoid any glue obscuring the glitter. It turned out really well. It's difficult to capture in a picture, but her wings have a lovely subtle sparkle. Perhaps you can see it a bit on the lower part of the wing.

And here's my tea-themed Christmas tree!

Sources for the ornaments I stitched and crafted are in this week's posts.

Links to additional sources:

chocolate Christmas tree

lemon slices

small polymer clay candy canes

glittery snowflake background fabric: Jo Ann Fabrics

*****
And that's another year's Christmas Open House done and dusted! I hope you've enjoyed the week here, and I thank you all so much for visiting and leaving such kind comments. Let's plan to meet up again this time next year because I've already chosen my theme for my 6th annual Christmas Open House! How's that for getting a jump on Christmas?

Merry Christmas, y'all!