I'm still out here - Happy New Year everyone!

Well I cannot believe it’s been so long since I last blogged but life has been very busy. I was chasing my tail all of December between work and the holidays. I thought I would have all sorts of free time during my December vacation from work for 10 days but between hosting 2 holiday parties, getting together with relatives etc, it seemed to fly by. I had about one day really to myself to sit and stitch and relax a bit.

I thought I probably should post a couple of pictures as I have none of myself on my blog and it's nice to put a face with a name. So here's one of myself, husband Dave, and our 2 dogs Buster (the Sheltie) and Abby (who would only stay still if she was in her bed). Also I've attached a picture of my holiday table - I love setting the table a bit different each time and I did blue and some lime green this year. And of course another picture of the dogs in their Christmas collars - don't know why dog eyes so often look weird in photos but they do. Abby eye's always come out blue in photos but are really brown. She's a very funny dog we adopted last year from the animal rescue society.









The bad news is I did not get my Christmas stocking finished! I still have some backstitching to do and then the finishing work. I put it away on Dec 23rd and told myself to face reality and not be stressed about it. So I have gotten it back out now and plan to finish it up – DH says he’ll fill my stocking for Valentine’s Day instead!

So there hasn’t been much time for stitching in quite a while and work is keeping me pretty busy as well. DH and I have started a new diet plan this week. We are trying to learn to eat better as we both have poor eating habits and are overweight. The first 6 weeks have a very strict food plan and it takes time to prepare the food to bring to work the next day – no grabbing a Lean Cuisine as I run out of the house anymore. I hope it helps both of us as we really need to get on a better path for our health.

I started a new project by Brenda Keyes – “Plymouth Sampler”. Here’s the pattern and my little bit of progress so far (excuse the poor scan but it's late and there's not much to see anyway). I’m using Lakeside Vintage Meadow Rue with NPI silks instead of the DMC called for.






I have had this kitted up for about a year ever since I saw the model at my LNS and fell in love with it. Not that I needed another WIP of course but I indulged myself for the new year. It’s my first major project done on 40-ct Lakeside Linen. So far it’s a bit tough – I use my big Daylight magnifier all the time anyway but even with the magnification I find it is so small – and even though I am using a petite needle it almost seems too big when stitching with it. I wear transition bifocals and although I love the look of 40-ct I think in the future I will do most of my work on 36-ct instead. I find it easier to stitch on – hate to admit I am getting old but my eyesight is just not what it used to be. I look at things I did years ago and sigh because I never needed any magnification back then. Those were the good ole days!!

Again this year I have stitching resolutions to finish up old UFO’s, decrease my number of WIP’s and reduce stash spending. I did cut down on spending last year but not enough. I am still acquiring at about 6 times the pace of stitching things! I recently picked up Lizzie Kate’s “Love Crazy” pattern. http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-127-lovecrazy-models.html
I really like the bright happy colors on it and it reminds me of the ‘Love’ stamp that used to be out. I won’t get it done for Valentine’s Day this year but it should be a fun and easy project.

I also picked up the last of the seasonal patterns I’ve been collecting for awhile from Rouge du Rhin. I love these hearts – one for each season but they run $20 apiece so to spread out the $80 I have been buying one every now and then. http://www.thefrenchneedle.com/coeur_printanier.htm

If there's anyone still out there reading my blog, do you know what happened to Blogroll? It used to work nicely but lately it's broken. I liked knowing who had updated their blog.