Happy Halloween from Tiger Lily!

 

Road Trip, Part 3

Back in the car, everybody! Last leg of the road trip and we're off to The Badlands of South Dakota!

Badlands National Park, South Dakota:

That's it for the road trip! We had a wonderful time and were blown away by the country we saw: the vast, lonely beauty of the High Plains, the pine forests of the Black Hills, the other-worldly ruggedness of The Badlands. It was all gorgeous in its own way. Thanks for tagging along!

We Interrupt This Road Trip...

 ...to bring you a couple of Christmas ornament finishes! Consider this a rest stop and stock up on snacks and stuff. Or stash. 

If you're new here, we have a tradition at our house where every year Mr. Wonderful and I each choose an ornament from the current issue of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Special Issue and I stitch them up. We've been doing this since we married in 2000, so our collection of stitched ornaments is pretty big now and we put them on their own tree. Here are this year's ornaments, ready for finishing.

Mr. Wonderful's choice:

As you can see, I went my own way a bit. Here are my changes:

*stitched on 32 ct. grey/white Basalt Splash by Zweigart (love this stuff, available at 123 Stitch)

*Since I went with grey, "snowy" fabric, I omitted the white swirly bits.

*I stitched the berry sprigs with DMC Etoile for a bit of sparkle. The twigs are C3799 and the berries are C814.

*I went a bit lighter on the backstitching and used DMC 3799 instead of black, and also used only one strand for all the backstitching, whereas the model called for two strands in some places.

*****

And my choice this year. When this issue came out, I knew I'd be stitching this buffalo. We've had our trip to South Dakota planned since the spring and I had been so looking forward to seeing buffalo on the Plains. It was just as spectacular as I'd hoped, and this year's Christmas ornament couldn't be any more perfect.

I stitched this guy on 32 ct. natural/brown petit point linen and swapped out hand dyed threads for the DMC, but didn't really change any colors.

Road trip resumes shortly!

Road Trip, Part 2

Buckle up! We're back on the road! Wanna see Mount Rushmore from every possible angle? Of course you do!

First peek through the trees of the Black Hills National Forest:

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota:

Bonus goodies! Picked up this great Mount Rushmore needle minder (and an adorable Santa fox!) from this Etsy shop as a reminder of our trip. These are on the larger side for needle minders and are great as scissors holders as well.

 Still more to come (we covered a lot of ground)!

Road Trip, Part 1

Just got home from a much-needed road trip. We were supposed to go in the spring, but had to cancel when the military issued an all-stop on travel due to the pandemic. Prepare for vacation pics!

Scottsbluff, Nebraska:

The High Plains:

Custer State Park, South Dakota:

The road trip continues soon!