This is the end, my only friend, the end

Quick, the lyrics in my title are from what song? And from what band or singer? Be the first to guess correctly, leave your guess in comments below, and I'll send you a little something. No hints this time! Oh, and be sure to leave a working email. Good luck! Google is your friend!

We're coming to the end of 2018 and I have a year ending update like I always do. I have been hermitting this weekend as we're dealing with a cold snap in these here parts. Yesterday, Phoenix was actually colder than many locations on the east coast! According to the weather guys, this happens every couple or three years. When my daughter and I were in New Orleans in February of 2016, Terri from Phoenix who comments on this blog, said it was pretty cold with high temps in the 50s. By Phoenix standards, that is cold. Here, our lows are stuck in the teens. So I bought groceries Friday after work and only left the house yesterday to go check mail. 

Let's get started!

As usual, here's progress on Christmas Garden by BBD..

I have made my way into the middle section! I took it out of the snaps to take this picture and decided I needed a break! So I'm stitching on something else for these last couple of days. I will pick Garden back up sometime in January for its week long stitching.

Here are 6 old WIPs, along with Garden, that I will stitch once a week starting Jan. 1..

Poor thing, I only stitched that much and never went back to it! I need to do a better job of centering as I will be getting a little close on that right border. I've seen this finished with the bottom portion left off but I will stitch the whole thing...Next...

Promise Me by LK. This was a Crazy January start that I never went back to. It will be for my daughter. 

Early Witches by the Primitive Hare. I'm pretty sure this will be a 2019 finish. Next..

Those of you who have followed me for awhile should recognize this project. It's a Praiseworthy Stitches design in the Jan/Feb 2011 JCS magazine. It's a biggie. I have a big lap stand that I found at a second hand store for $8 and I'll use it for WaBH ^. I also have a bigger qsnap that this might fit on too so I'll have to check. I still have all the floss for this in that baggie. I like Praiseworthy Stitches but they like specialty stitches a lot and I avoid them like the plague. This design has a few specialty stitches but it's not bad. I'm determined to get to the halfway point on this.

And last but not least is A Bee in Your Bonnett by Summerhouse Stitchworkes..

Here is what the model looks like. I don't have the chart anymore. It's way too pretty to abandon.

So that's my WIP plans for the first 4 months of 2019. I say 4 months because I just might, might, do Maynia in May again! All new starts again, every day maybe. I was watching a flosstuber who was talking about Maynia and that she hates to see all her stash sitting on the shelf not being stitched and I agree. Who knows, I may decide that stitching on my WIPs is more fun than new starts. It's a vicious cycle!

I stashed again but these don't count because they're Christmas presents to myself!

Would you just look at this Goode Huswife design! I saw that and I jumped right on it. It's from her etsy site. At $16 it's more than I usually spend on a brand new chart but it's a beauty and I will definitely start that in 2019. On the right is this Barbara Ana Halloween design that I've been pining away for. Chart only $4 new on a FB destash group. They average out to $10 per chart. It feels better thinking of it that way!

So I had 21 finishes for the year! I had small, medium, and large for me, finishes. Here are 4 of the bigger ones..

and the tribal rooster..

The tribal rooster is shiny because I didn't take him out of the portfolio that I keep for my finishes. I would really like to have these all framed. My portfolio is full of other framed wannabees too! They'll have to get in line. That is a goal for 2019, to get things framed that deserve to be. 

I had a recent finish that I never showed..

From a Hands On Design freebie. It'll be a pillow.

I had another FFO..

Another flange pillow using Vonna's video tutorial. Thanks Vonna. It's such an adorable design and fits right in with the prim Christmas style that I like. I used the red and white twine for the bow and picks up the red door of the tiny house and those red stitches under Vixen.

Here's my 2019 reading pile!

I have already begun the top book and I'm halfway through it. The Windhaven Plantation series are old and published around the 70s maybe, following descendants from an immigrant from France who established a plantation in Alabama. It's fiction. There are several books, 14 of them and the one above is number 10. The next one I'll have to find as I don't have it. This makes it the 3rd rereading of the series.

I like historical fiction and the middle two thinner books are set in historical times. The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first of a series about a young lady who befriends Sherlock Holmes in his retirement and he becomes her reluctant 'teacher' in investigating. I like anything Sherlock Homes! The Tea Planters Wife is a mystery where things are not as they seem. She learns things about her husband while living with him on his tea plantation in the Indies. Sounds interesting.

And of course the Outlander. Diana Gabaldon has said that 2019 could be when the next book is published so I'm rereading them and A Breath of Snow and Ashes is next. It takes me more than a month to read these thick books. It never used to be this way! I read a page and then get drowsy!

So that's it for the update. We had a Merry Christmas, hope you had one too. My brothers couldn't make it, one was sick and the other was having some minor car troubles. So I went to my daughter's place and had Christmas there. She loved the Grinch ornaments I made her and the bunting. Her style is the Farnhouse look so the bunting fit in perfectly. She has watched the newer Grinch 20-some odd times since Thanksgiving! Told you she loves the Grinch! Here's a picture of my granddog Hunter dressed for the occasion..

He's such a ham! You can put all sorts of stuff on this dog and nothing bothers him!

Well, I believe this is it, the End. I want to thank you all for riding along with me the entire year. I am going to try my best next year to show up more here on the blog. No SALs for me in 2019 since I'm such a failure at them. I have joined some SALs that are listed in Stitch Maynia and they are stuff like stitch on something with words or that are a certain color. Pretty doable. I am doing the usual 2 exchanges with Dixiesamplar that I like, the Easter/Spring and the fall/Halloween ones. Maybe throw another in with the destash group whose admin likes to do exchanges. We'll see!

Here's wishing you all a healthy, happy, stitchy and just a Happy New Year!