This week's SBQ

I never do these when I first get them and then things happen and sometimes I forget. I'd like to start doing them each week, so I'll start this week and see how 2008 goes.

This weeks question:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

Kind of. I got 2 "felted bunny kits" along with the felting block to make them. The kits were from two different friends who had found the perfect "T" gift. Then they discovered they'd both found the perfect gift, they decided to send them both to me and not be responsible for the consequences of having 2 bunnies in close proximity. LOL! That's the closest I came to stitching-related gifts this year.

This is not about Christmas

I take time out of the season to say that I accomplished something tonight. For those of you who read this and are part of the Ravelry community, you may understand the significance of what I'm about to say. You see, I've been trying to get my stash all organized on Ravelry. If for no other reason then so I can see it. I store most of my yarn in these really pretty hamper-like things, which is great, but you can't look at your yarn when it's all in that. Now, I don't have everything listed, but I have all the really good stuff pretty much listed and with pictures on Ravelry. I'm so excited! I know I'm missing some things, but the bulk is there. I'm going to try and pick up the rest this week. So, if you're a part of Ravelry, feel free to browse.

In stitching news, I started a new project on Christmas Day. I knew I would. It's a small item, so I might actually finish it, plus it's a bunny. It's from Trilogy and called "Happy Bunny Bunny Day". I decided to do it 1 over 1 in the hopes it will be small enough to make a cute pin. We'll see how it looks when it's done. Not much to show, but I'll try to take a picture this weekend to give you an update. What I really need to stitch on is a super-secret item that I need to get done by some point in January. I'll probably work on that some tomorrow. Plus I need to get with Judy and get her ornament started for her prize. Once I know which one I'm going to do, I'll let you all know too. I really just want to spend the rest of the week stitching and maybe knitting, but it hasn't happened so far. I only got in 2 or 3 hours on Christmas day and an hour tonight. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Our office is closed so I really don't have to work until at least the 2nd, maybe even the 3rd! There should be some quality time available in all that somewhere to do what I want to do!

And the winner is...

Judy with "Frostless the Snowman". To be fair we put all the names in a hat and drew one. There were some really good entries for names. Have to admit that I loved "Sonny", "Rocky" and of course "Mr. Dazzle FSU (pronounced Fisu). "Gumbeaux"got a laugh as well.

Thanks for all who participated. I'll post the prize as soon as I make sure Judy doesn't have what I plan on stitching.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Day!

Contest deadline extended

Mainly because I'm obviously crazy if I thought I'd have time to pick the winner today. I'm making food for our open house tonight between Candlelight Services at church. So, you have until tomorrow to submit your ideas. Let' s say by 4PM eastern time.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's an official contest and more decorating

Ok, it's official, "Name the Snowman" is a real contest. I'll tell you that the winner will be getting a hand-made ornament of my choosing and if I were you I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the contest. So, you have until Christmas Eve morning at 9 AM to post a comment with your suggestion or suggestions. I will then put all the names in a hat and have my mother choose the winning name. That seems fair. This means that multiple suggestions gives you multiple chances to win. I'll post the winner's name Christmas Eve and will send you an email as well.

Ok, that's out of the way, now for pictures of decorations. Yesterday mom and I must have thought we had all the time in the world because we decided to head outside and cut some branches from one of the magnolia trees and use them on a table in the Family room. The idea was simple, but we got a little carried away with our cutting and ended up with lots of branches and leaves, much more then we needed for this.It doesn't really show up that well, but some of the leaves I painted silver, so in person it looks much better. (To the left is the snowman who shall be named later.) To the right of this table is the fireplace.
I liked this picture, even though it's kind of dark, because you can sort of see the lights.

You may be wondering what we did with the left over magnolia branches, since as you can see I didn't use all that many. Well wonder no more...There it hangs in all it's glory. I added in some boxwood, since mine needed to be trimmed a bit anyway, and of course painted some silver. Decided it would look wonderful hanging outside the Sun Porch. You can see my father inside enjoying a good book while I did work. Must be nice to be retired.

I actually managed to send out almost all of my Christmas cards this evening. I have a couple that didn't go out. I ran out of cards with just a couple to go. That's just my luck. Went shopping for most of the food I'll need for Christmas Eve. We still haven't decided on what to have Christmas Day. I'm leaning toward either a pork loin or standing rib roast. I'm going to take a stroll through some recipes and then decide what might be the easiest.

Tonight more cookie baking ensued. I need to get up early and start back at it in the morning, plus do any prep work for Christmas Eve. I almost forgot that mom and I have tickets to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" in Jacksonville Sunday night. I can't imagine having a show that close to Christmas, but it's part of our series, so we're going. That means Sunday I won't get any cooking done. But I'm sure I'll enjoy the play!

A Snowman in Florida

That's right, we have a snowman right here in north Florida! He may not look like any snowman you've ever seen, but just remember, he's going to be different since he's a southern boy/snowman.
He's all decked out and ready to have a good time with some bear friends. (On a whole other note I realize that on some level it's kind of sad that I have no children and that many bears. Plus there's some you can't see scattered around. So, yeah, I like bears...and rabbits...and the occasional penguin.)

Mom says he needs a name. I've been trying to think of something really interesting, but I'm tired so nothing is coming to mind. Feel free to make suggestions. If I choose your name, I'll send you a surprise (but it will take a little while to get it to you because first I have to make it so bear with me. No pun intended...I really am tired.)

He's sitting in the rocking chair my grandpa B. gave me right before he died. I was just a little girl, but he wanted me to have it. The chair was his mothers and she rocked all her children, then he got it and rocked his kids and me. I had to have the seat rewoven several years ago and was lucky to find a man here that could recreate the original fairly closely.

Today was a lot of clean-up work. Going through a room and picking up things, sweeping and dusting one last time. I have some pictures of the lighted pieces on my piano. I realize that in the real London these three pieces would not be this close, but work with me here, this is pretend.
Tonight was the children's play/musical at church. They did a fantastic job. My friend's daughter L. had a huge part, in fact, she was one of the main characters. She did a great job. She's only in the 1st grade and she had a lot of lines to memorize. I was very proud of her and all the kids. No pictures, since I completely forgot my camera.

Tomorrow I have to finish those small details and then put together the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I keep trying to talk my family into having pizza on Christmas Day so I can stitch and knit all day, but I don't think they're buying it. Oh well, at least if we do turkey there'll be leftovers and some good soup at some point!

What a weekend!

Seriously I had a really great weekend. It was busy, but there was some fun thrown in so it was worth it.

Friday evening mom & I went shopping for a few things we needed, nothing spectacular, but I managed to find some goodies to finish up my gifts for some friends here in town. Just in time too. Now I have to put everything together and hope they enjoy the combination of handmade and cool bought things.

Saturday I got up early and headed over to KnitWitz for class with Annie Modesitt. What a wonderful teacher. You can see pictures over on Yarnfinder's blog (or as we know her Kathe). I'm in a couple of pictures for the Universal Mitered bag class, but all you can see is my back or the top of my head. I love the project, but even more I love how Annie talked about making patterns your own. She shared some cool tips and tricks and encouraged us to take what we learned and put it in our "toolbox" to take out later. I like when that's the attitude of the teacher. For some reason I totally didn't get that I needed yarn that would felt. If you've taken a look at my Ravelry stuff lately (for those on Ravelry I'm GirlWithNeedles, and if you knit and you aren't on Ravelry or signed up to get on, what are you waiting for???) you can see I have some felting yarn. And that's not all of it. I have great scraps that would have worked for something this small. But that was not to be. I guess the yarn fairies wanted me to purchase more yarn. The colors I chose are kind of interesting, see...That color on the left, that's kind of more orange then I would normally like, but I was so drawn to the multi yarn above it that I thought it would work. It's actually kind of more like a coral color in a way. But still, not my normal color choice.

Saturday when I got home it was time to start cleaning the windows on the sun porch. That room is wonderful, and I love it, especially this time of year, but cleaning those windows isn't all that fun. Luckily it doesn't involve a ladder. The decision was also made to not put up the 9 ft. tree this year. It's getting late in the season and it's a bear to put up, so no big tree. Oh well. I also did some work on the mantle decorations. That carried on into Sunday before it was done. No pictures yet though, there's still stuff in the way so I can't get a good picture. Soon, I promise.