Organizing Squirrels

Good afternoon everyone! I wanted to get in one last post for 2022! This year flew by! I am fighting a head cold that hit Christmas Eve. I sound like a trash compactor! But that's fine because I'm hermitting with the next 3 days off and no plans to do anything, tonight for New Years Eve and into the week. We're slated for a good storm to move in tonight.

Thanks for commenting on the last post. On trimming one of the Christmas finishes I showed, Jo said maybe a white whispy trim or pom pom; I like the white pom pom idea. 

So let's talk about stitching!

Right now I'm in 2 Sal's with one ending tonight. It's the one from Halloween Cross Stitch Challenge. My two victims are Frosty Forest and Wicked Alphabet. Carol thought maybe this would be finished this year but no such luck! Here's Frosty Forest...

The number 7 block is done and I've started with part of a chimney in the 8th. I'll be continuing this in the 2nd SAL I'm in. 

The other WIP is Wicked Alphabet by The Primitive Needle. I've had some good progress on this one...

Each letter feels like a finish! It's not bad stitching actually, and I am past the halfway point. This too will be continued in the SAL which by the way is found by the hashtag #idareyousal2023. It's almost like WIPGO but just a number picked. Here's a longtime WIP of 9 years that was #7, the first number picked...Song of the Seasons, the mystery sampler by LHN!

Remember this?! An oldie but goodie! When I made my list of WIPs for this SAL, I included a lot of old ones. So you're going to be going down Memory Lane with me monthly as I get back to some of these. So I've stitched in everything on the right side in the last few days. Looking at the house on the left, the tree shows 2 seasons, maybe spring and summer. It can and does snow in spring. The fabric is WDW Straw. It's great to get back to this.

I also had a Christmas day start and it's this one by PSS..

My Early Days. I love this! I was waiting on a few overdye floss which arrived today in the mail. The shots of blue in this design are what got my attention. I might stitch in the blues in other areas too. It's on a Dixiesamplar 40ct linen. The called for floss are all DMC and WDW.

My Early Days is part of 3 new starts in 2023. Past years, I did a bday SAL with 29 new starts but I really want to knock out WIPs which there are about 25. Here are the other 2 new starts...

I have been sitting on that 35ct parchment non-zweigart linen for a year! It's a half yard! I knew I wanted to use it for Grace Bridges but couldn't find the chart. I finally found the PDF at the Stacy Nash Etsy shop. Calls for DMC. I can't wait to get to that mustard house! To see this finished, see the Primitive Stitcher/Suzette on flosstube #80 at the 14:49 minute point in the video. She is responsible for my wanting to stitch this sampler!

The next start will be the mystery Halloween design by Tiny Modernist...

I have the first 2 charts and took about 8 months to buy all the floss. The Onyx alone needed 5 skeins so luckily they all were the same dye lot. It'll be on the gray evenweave pictured.

Btw, I read that one of the bigger overdyed floss companies are raising their price for a skein. Might as well! The price of eggs is crazy! And sometimes I have trouble finding my cats regular food. Ugh.

Okay, let's continue with stitching!

I had 30 finishes this year! That's pretty good as I work 40hrs a week. A lot of them were small though.

As I do during the end of the year, I show my reading for 2023...

This year I only read 6 books with the newest Outlander taking up a good chunk of time. I am rereading Voyager after finding a decent copy on eBay.

That top book is a William Monk mystery, the 2nd in a series. If you like mysteries held during the Victorian era in London like I do, take a look at the author. They're pretty good.

I read the Hobbit in preparation for the Lord of The Ring books and the movies. These two paperbacks are a bit dog eared.

Last book, I like a good scary one every now and then. Darcy Coates writes nothing but!

So in 2016 in December, Honeybee The Copper Fox posted a black eyed pea crockpot recipe during her Christmas Open House. It's called Black-eyed Peas and Ham, and I have it cooking in my crockpot right now! I won't eat it until tomorrow when the good luck is supposed to start, lol! I grew up eating pinto, and kidney beans, and to this day can't get Lima beans down the gullet! So this soup sounds good with the ham chunks thrown in. You'll find it at the December 6 2016 post along with a cute Christmas box tutorial.

This whole post felt like herding squirrels! Normally, I write down stuff I want to show or talk about but I went rogue with this one! 

Hope your Christmas was magical, whether with a lot of family and friends, or just a few. We had a great one but then everyone got sick! My headcold, my daughter with strep throat and her boyfriend and his head cold!! I wonder who started that! Hope you're all staying healthy!

I'm off! Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year with wishes of health, happiness, love, and togetherness!

See you in 2023!!