Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Joyful Celebration of whatever tradition you follow.

May you experience love, laughter, the joy of family & friends, peace and hope.

WIP Wednesday 21 December 2016

And I have nothing. Nothing! I didn't put one stitch in Retirement Means and I have pulled out the start of the doll outfit TWICE now as I keep screwing up the pattern repeat. Hopefully the third time will be the charm.

We've been having some cold (for us) weather and there was this lovely winter waterfall just outside my apartment block.

Such a sad little post. LOL  I will try to be back on track next week.

WIP Wednesday 14 December 2016

Well, we're still dealing with minus temperatures and it's supposed to snow again this weekend, then rain for four days. That won't be so bad as long as it doesn't freeze again after. Oh well, excellent excuse to snuggle indoors, stitch and pet cats. Speaking of stitching, what's happened?

Well, I had a small finish

for a friend whose daughter is Eeyore crazy.

Retirement Means went from here

to here.

Cross stitch is complete, back stitching about to start.

And I started my new non-cross stitch project.

There is only one doll in the kit, but enough yarn to make all 3 outfits and blanket. I haven't knit with such small needles and wool in years, but if it turns out well I will probably give it to the Seniors' Centre to raffle at the Spring Tea.

Is everyone (anyone?) close to being ready for Christmas?

WIP Wednesday 7 December 2016

Well it happened this weekend - Mother Nature decided to remind us west coasters that it was winter and blessed us with this.

And it wasn't any better looking up the hill.

And from then until at least next Friday we are going to be in minus temperatures, so brrrr. However, it does make for good stitching weather. The rug went from here

to TA-DA, a finish!

Now I just need to bind the excess canvas underneath and it can be off to its new home.

And Retirement didn't get totally ignored, going from here

to here.

As you can see, the hoop got moved again. There's a little wagon and another bee to be added in, then finish the border so the back stitching can begin.

Spoiled Again!

I've been unusually lucky the last couple of months with giveaways. Back in October, Riona who blogs as Oubliette was hosting a giveaway of 10 Halloween charts and I won. Well the charts have arrived and look what I got!

Five charts here - and I want to do them all. But there was so much more.

Two charts in this picture.

Love the different finishes.

I've seen this one stitched on a couple of blogs and I love it. This may be my first stitch.

But then look at all these wonderful Celtic patterns - how do I choose?

And this one made me smile. I want to stitch him, but definitely not buy from him!

Thank you SO much Riona! I'm just thrilled and quite happy about falling over to the dark side.

WIP Wednesday 30 November 2016 - And Some Bits

It is the last day of November, already! Do you all get the impression that time just goes too fast for me? This post is fairly picture heavy.

I did get in some craft time and Retirement went from here

to here.

I'm very pleased her tools are not hovering in midair any more. Hopefully this week the basket will get a bottom.

The rug went from here

to here sorta. When I put the rug on the freezer (the only thing big enough to spread it out on) for the picture, Snowy immediately hopped off the cat tower and laid down on all the softness.

After several attempts to move him (he can jump back up faster than I can take a picture), I simply waited him out.

The last snowman is done! I have 3 and about 2/3 rows of the blue background and 5 rows of the red and white border to be finished.

I also received an envelope from Rosey who blogs as Ishkabibble with the patterns I had won in a giveaway. This is what I was lucky enough to receive.

My very first Prairie Schooler patterns! Anyone giving odds on the chances they will be stitched by next Christmas??

And you must be careful what you say to friends. My craft partner Cynthia posted on her FB page a notice for a one evening pottery painting workshop. I casually mentioned it looked like an interesting way to spend an evening and the next thing I knew, I was signed up. We had a choice of painting a yarn bowl or a mug and I chose a yarn bowl. Now, please understand, I can't draw on a flat piece of paper, never mind something 3 dimensional, so I just played with colour. It really was a fun evening and this is what I ended up with after the instructor took all the pieces to be glazed and fired.

Definitely not great art but it will be really useful.

WIP Wednesday 23 November 2016

And it's another Wednesday and time to review what's been done.

Again, the rug got most of my attention, going from here

 to here

with a softness check when I took the picture. I think it passed as Yoda took a lengthy nap before I was able to put it away.

Retirement went from here

to here.