9 Days!!!!!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I did have a wonderful day.  No stitching stash but I did get some cash so I will be ordering something soon!!!  My fingers have been itching for Elizabeth for a couple of months now so I'm pretty sure she will be in the mail soon.  However I did have a very interesting experience the other day.....

It started out innocently enough.  I just popped over to see my new BFF, Joyce.  "Let's see what she's been working on.  A finish!  Look at Ivy!!!  Isn't she stunning.  Well I must congratulate Joyce on the finish."  So as I'm commenting this little thought is going through my head.  "Wow.  Ivy really is beautiful.  No, no, she's a fairy.  I'm sure hubby will not like a fairy.  Wonder where Joyce met her husband?"  Caught up in my own thoughts, I did notice a slight tightening in my arm but really was in my own little world and never gave it a second thought.  A day or two later I popped over to say hello to Joyce again.  Ivy is finished finished.  I say to myself, "look at that finish."  Yes, I had seen Fern before - she's beautiful as well.  "And look how they are displayed in Joyce's closet.  What an amazing idea.  I have a walk in closet.  I wonder how she did that finish?  I'll just ask."  Never even noticed the arm getting tighter.  "What's this?  Joyce did the finish herself?  And she's giving me the tutorial so I can finish something like this too?  WOO HOO!  What am awesome friend."  This time I did notice I was having trouble moving my arm.  But I must thank Joyce.  How nice was she to give me the tutorial.   "What's this?  A possible new start, Lilac?"  Suddenly it's like a vice has my arm.  I'm becoming alarmed, "Why can't I move my arm??"  Oh, Joyce, can you hear me????  UNCLE!!!!!!  See, I've added Lilac to my wish list on the right.  Somehow I think Elizabeth will be coming home with a friend!

So, what's the 9 days about you ask?  It's coming up on the end of the year.  And I have to say we do already have a nice long Christmas break where the office is shut down.  But also being the end of the year there is that ole pesky "use it or lose it" vacation thing.  We are only allowed to roll over so many days into next year and the others you better use them or lose them.  So taking all that into consideration and having a talk with my boss -----I'm only working 9 days this month!  I feel like I won the lottery.  Plenty of time to get the house ready and cook for Christmas.  We are up to 21 guest for Christmas Day!  But you know what else?  Plenty of extra stitching time too!!!!!  Who needs a million dollars?  Amazing friends, new stash and plenty of time to stitch - lucky me!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me

I'm 44 today.  I don't really know what the plans are...I'll be surprised.  Fingers crossed for some stitching stash!

Update on Chilly's Gift

My Thanksgiving was great!!!  I was able to spend Thursday with my family at my sister's house.  Then on Saturday we were able to visit with my husband's family.  We were able to begin decorating for Christmas and probably would have finished except for the rain!

I didn't have a lot of time to stitch but wanted to post my progress on Chilly's Gift.  He's coming along.  Does anyone know how to change this so it's not sideways????  Sorry!!!  I don't know what happened.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I hope you are surrounded by family and friends.

I'm blessed to live close to my family.  Thanksgiving Day we will visit my sister and have a family dinner.  It has been requested that I bring a Cranberry Casserole and Peanut Butter Pie.  Two family favorites. 

I don't do the whole Black Friday thing.  Too many people!!!  Instead we will be decorating and cleaning at our house.  We are hosting our family Christmas gathering.  Since I work full time, I really need to go ahead and get an early start getting the house ready.  Still working on the whole menu thing.  My family is very traditional and they want a traditional meal.  (So traditional that it's really the same meal every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas except the turkey and ham switch out.)   My husband's family (and my husband) really are not.  Yes, they want to get together but the menu can vary - some times they even go out to eat - something unheard of in my family.  Since we are hosting, my husband really wants to change the whole menu up and not serve ANYTHING we usually have (ham/turkey, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry casserole, etc.) Can you imagine my Mom's face when she sees none of the family favorites?????   "How about steaks or chili or Chicken Alfredo" he says.  So I'm trying to work out a menu that everyone will enjoy cause I don't think any of those things will sit that well with my family.  We are still not sure if the two families will come together for one meal or if we will be having two separate meals.  If it's two separate meals in terms of the menu it would be better because I could prepare a non traditional meal for his family and a more traditional meal for mine.  I'm really trying not to stress so much about it so let me change the subject!

I'm still working on Chilly's Gift and I do hope to have some stitching time this long weekend.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish the stitching on him.  I'll post an update on Monday.  There are two other ornaments I'd like to finish before Christmas for friends.  So I'm hoping to get started on that as well.  We'll see how much I can get done.

Comments and Followers!!!!

I'm so thankful to see comments and followers.  You don't know how happy this makes me.  Surprised too!

Well, I've done it again.  I checked in with Joyce and she has a fabulous post about SAL's for 2012.  Of course, I am continuing with IHSW and I already joined the TUSAL group for 2012.  But I found another SAL that just spoke to me.  I'm going to be joining Heather's Theme-a-licious SAL.  You can read more about it here.  I love making list and having a monthly theme like this really speaks to my heart.  Heather says she's done this kind of thing before but it will be a first for me.  I'm already excited and trying to plan what to work on each month.  Check out Joyce's post and find the SAL for you in 2012!!!!

First IHSW Weekend

I had a wonderful time stitching this weekend.  I didn't have as much stitching time as I would have liked but I still made progress.  I didn't have a "before" picture since this was a brand new start but here is my "after" picture.

Sorry it's such a bad picture.  I had to take it with the phone instead of the camera because I totally forgot to take a picture before I left home.  I so appreciate getting to join the IHSW group.  I'm looking forward to next month!  I hope everyone had a wonderful time stitching this month.  I'll be visiting blogs looking at everyone's progress.

This weekend besides stitching, my husband and I finished putting down hardwood flooring.  It was the first time we have attempted it and the results are great.  It just took us a lot longer since we were new at it.  My husband said he wishes we had done it 2 or 3 years ago. 

2012 TUSAL

So I've mostly been a lurker on blogs.   I've followed the 2011 TUSAL and am so excited that Daffycat has allowed me to join in for 2012.

I'm all set for the IHSW this weekend.  Can't wait to begin my new start.  Pictures will be posted on Monday.  I hope everyone will have a great weekend!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

This weekend is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.  I really want to participate this month!  I found out about it last month right after it happened and was so disappointed to have missed it.  You can read more about it here at Random Ramblings. 

I will be starting a new Christmas Ornament Chilly's Gift.  It was a freebie from here.

My blog is new so I'll be adding to it and hopefully making it interesting.  But I didn't want to miss IHSW this weekend so I quickly pulled something together so I could join in!