Where did January Go?!

3 weeks into January and this is my first post...I should hang my head in shame! The start of 2011 has gone by in a blur. My parents came to stay last week and we had another push on decorating the house. I'm happy to report that we now have an almost finished staircase and have wallpapered the dining end of the kitchen and put up a beautiful new light! Well, I say 'we'...what I really mean is Dad and my DH. At 30 weeks pregnant I'm really starting to struggle now. With DD I worked full-time up until 38 weeks and felt absolutely great. Bearing in mind it wasn't a sit down type job, I was teaching a class of 32 very active 8 year olds! Is it because I'm 2 years older now or just that my body is giving up?! I really marvel at women who have 3,4,5 even more children. How does the body cope? Every now and again I dabble in researching my family tree and I discovered that my Great grandmother had 10 children and many miscarriages in between. Of course the standard of living back then was much inferior to what we have now and I just can't imagine how women coped.
Anyway, this isn't a genealogy blog, on to some stitchy news! After Christmas I felt a little down-in-the-mouth, I always when do when the Christmas tree first comes down. To try and prolong the festive season I carried on with some Christmas stitching. My first finish was a freebie from The Drawn Thread. I think I may have finished this a little on the small side as the corners are not up to my usual standard, but it's cute nonetheless and will hang on my tree this year.


'Santa Keeper'
freebie from The Drawn Thread

My next finish is from the JCS 2010 ornament preview. It's 'Season of Love' by CCN. It stitched up fairly quickly and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying stitching LHN and CCN at the moment. I did have a moment of weakness after Christmas and bought 'Gingerbread Cottage' by CCN along with the Crescent Colours needed to stitch it, kind of a belated Christmas present to myself.


'Season of Love' by CCN
JCS Ornament Preview Issue 2010

Inspired by all of the 'Crazy' Challenge starts I've seen on many blogs this month, I've decided that 2011 is going to be the year of larger projects for me. I will still stitch the odd Christmas ornie of course, I don't want to be 3 weeks away from Christmas without having stitched a single of the 12 ornies required for Christmas gifts (as happened last year!). So my first larger project is pictured below.


Lavender & Lace 'The Spirit of Christmas'

I think I've had this in my stash for nigh on 18 years. I stitched L&L 'Santa of the Forest' when I was 17 and my mam still displays it every Christmas, but I never got around to stitching this. It will be a birthday present for my Auntie Margaret, so I'll have to get it done before Oct 30th this year. October seems a very long way away but bearing in mind I'm having a baby in April, there may be a long break from stitching in the middle of the year!


progress so far...

The other larger project that I'd like to get my teeth into is pictured below. It's one I've only just become familiar with after finding it in a random Flickr album online. From what I can gather, it's by Country Arts and Crafts, called 'Santa's List' and very difficult to get hold of! I did manage to find a book of Country Arts & Crafts on Amazon that features the design, but after doing some further research, I found several comments despairing that the chart is in colour in the book and quite difficult to follow. Has anybody seen this design completed? I bet it's one of those designs that is a real conversation piece. If this were on somebody's wall at Christmas time you couldn't walk past it without stopping to admire it.



After deciding that that was more than enough to keep me going for the year (and then some...) I read on Valerie's blog that she'd fallen in love with a Chatelaine design called 'Evening in the Park'. I've never really fancied stitching a Chatelaine design, they always look far too complicated/fussy/expensive for my liking, but I had a look over on their website anyway, just to see what had caught Valerie's eye...WOW! I love it, have to have it! The repetitive nature worries me, but IF I buy it, I think I'd see it as a project that could span over several years! One of those WIP's that you pick up only occasionally and hey presto, 10 years later you have a finished piece! Any avid Chatelaine stitchers out there that could give some words of advice?!

Last but by no means least, I received my Winter Exchange from the Seasonal Exchange Blog. It is sent from Michelle, a fellow UK stitcher/blogger.



Isn't it just lovely? The finishing is so neat, I have finish envy! It's 'Merry Winter' from Homespun Elegance. Thank you so much Michelle, I really love it. Michelle also included a lovely little card and a WDW thread - it won't last long in this household! It's so nice to encounter a fellow UK stitcher/blogger Michelle.

Ok, I'd better leave it there. DD has been asleep for almost 2 hours now so my peace and quiet is about to come to an abrupt end!

Regards,

Christina