Deadlines and Christmas shopping

I just finished an order for a dear customer in France. She ordered a Mae doll from me~not the pattern, but the doll. It is the first time I have made an all cloth folk doll in some time and I really enjoyed it! I was quite burned out on doll making for a while, but making this doll has revived a little bit of the joy I once had, and gotten the creative juices flowing again! I am thinking about adding some new folk doll patterns in 2011, and possibly even a made to order section on my website.

 I have finally finished the CLOUD on ATS!!! Big time happy dance! I even had a little bit of time to move on to some of the other motifs-yay! I plan to continue focusing on this piece until the end of the year.

I am happy to say I am completely done with my Christmas shopping! My husband had the week off of work so we did all of our shopping in 2 days. Now I will begin all of my baking and candy making, I like to do a lot of teacher gifts and thank you's to people who help out our family during the year-coaches and people at the schools. We are incredibly thankful to all of the people who have such a wonderful influence on our kids. We are so lucky to have such a great faith community, incredible families with great values within our circle of friends, wonderful teachers and role models at the high school who have helped our kids make college decisions and guided them toward a young adulthood where they can be positive contributors to society. so let the baking begin!
  AND FINALLY, my Crazy January 2011 Challenge list! I am still tweaking it, and mostly having trouble paring it down. I originally had a lot more WIPs in there, but keep taking them out to add in new things I want to start. This is probably the craziest thing I've ever done-but WHAT THE HECK! May as well have these charts started rather than just sitting there doing nothing!! LOL!
 OK so heres my list:
1. German Sampler by AED 1746~Sacarlet Letter
2. Noah's Stocking ~CHS  172 x 447
3. Paradise Lost~PSS  417 x 190
4. No Bees No Honey~Birds of a Feather 128 x 112
5. In March and In April~Goode Huswife 255 x 175 *
6. Happy Hearts~Birds of a Feather 158 x 200
7. Noah's Garden~The Goode Huswife 86 x 67
8. Pennsylvania Christmas Sampler~The Goode Huswife 211 x 174
9. Fancy Peacocks~Stacy Nash 141 x 81
10. Sarah Spurr~CHS 145 x 183
11. A. Elizabeth~The Goode Huswife 127 x 74
12. Tombstone Angel~Kelmscott Designs 33 x 40
13. Miniature Monogram Hornbook~Kelmscott Designs 33 x 40
14. Ann Greanawalt Sampler~Scarlet Letter  *
15. Quaker Hornbook~WTN 43 x 62 *
16. Noah's Ark Sampler~Cith Stitcher 145 x 180 *

Charts with an * are WIPs. So see I have 16, one too many. But I may take out Pennsylvania Christmas sampler and start that now as a Christmas piece, and then I would have 15. I still have to gather threads for all of these, I have all of the fabric except for the German AED, I need to order a piece for that one. So I am well on my way to being organized and ready for this challenge on the first. This has been a lot of fun already!

My list so far...

This will have to be pared down in a major way. Here is everything I would "like" to start. The designs without a stitch count are ones that the stitch count was not given on the chart. The designs with the asterisk are WIPs(I had to throw them in there to ease my conscience!)

Crazy January 2011 Challenge

1. German Sampler by AEDEGNES 1746~Sacarlet Letter
2. Noah's Stocking ~CHS  172 x 447
3. Old World Santas II~PS
4. Paradise Lost~PSS  417 x 190
5. Plymouth Sampler~The Sampler Company   257 x 129
6. No Bees No Honey~Birds of a Feather 128 x 112
7. Sampler of Bees~City Stitcher  148 x 111
8. In March and In April~Goode Huswife 255 x 175 *
9. Happy Hearts~Birds of a Feather 158 x 200
10. Samplers Sign~The Goode Huswife 165 x 24
11. Noah's Garden~The Goode Huswife 86 x 67
12. Pennsylvania Christmas Sampler~The Goode Huswife 211 x 174
13. Fancy Peacocks~Stacy Nash 141 x 81
14. Sarah Spurr~CHS 145 x 183
15. Be My Love~CHS 148 x 91
16. Frederick~CHS 181 x 125
17. Fredericka~CHS 181 x 125
18. Black Horse Inn~CHS 219 x 171                                                                                                    
19. A. Elizabeth~The Goode Huswife 127 x 74
20. Tombstone Angel~Kelmscott Designs 33 x 40
21. Alpha Bird~Sheepish Designs 136 x 140
22. Miniature Monogram Hornbook~Kelmscott Designs 33 x 40
23. Checkerbird~Heart in Hand 36 x 36
24. Blossoms and Blackbirds~LHN 65 x 65
25. Ann Greanawalt Sampler~Scarlet Letter  *
26. Quaker Hornbook~WTN 43 x 62 *
27. Noah's Ark Sampler~Cith Stitcher 145 x 180 *
28. Willow Trees Sampler~City Stitcher 147 x 158

So, now to try to eliminate at least 13 of them. I will probably keep all of the really small ones because I have a better chance of actually getting them finished in 2011. But the hard part is to pick which of the big ones I really want to work on!

I'm thinking about it!

I know, I must be crazy!! That is why it is called the Crazy January 2011 Challenge! I must be out of my mind! I don't have time for this!I need to be stitching models, not stitching for myself! LOL! I first heard about this when Siobhan mentioned it on the Sampler Lovers Forum. My first reaction was, "wow that is nuts, but I have so many beloved charts I would like to stitch..." I thought about it some more. I went to the original blog post to read up on the rules. Siobhan mentioned it AGAIN on her blog(enabler alert!). And now my thinking is getting serious! OK, here are the rules:

• We have so many charts in our stashes, so let's start stitching them!
  The rules are simple:
  
  1. Start stitching a new design every day, from January 1st to January 15th. So by January 15th you have 15 new WIPs to stitch!
  
  2. Try and finish everything you started stitching during the year 2011 :)
  
  3. Show photos in your blog if you have one, in January and during the whole year while you stitch, as we all love to see photos!
  
  4. If you wish to join, leave a comment with your blog address into this post and I will add your name to the list.
  
  5. Have fun stitching!

(from ristipistoni blog)
 The thing is I love stitching! And I love stitching designs from other designers as much as and sometimes MORE than my own designs. Stitching other peoples designs is what keeps me happy and motivated. It is also what keeps me from releasing new charts every month which is my seemingly unattainable goal! But when I look at my huge stash of charts and kits, I think to myself-I will never get all of these stitched. Maybe I will and maybe I won't but wouldn't it be better to at least have more of them started? I am still thinking(justifying) on this!
  Here is the cutest picture of Isabel and my little Carmel Delight taking a nap together. She is the sweetest pup ever-we all just love her!

New Cross Stitch Chart sneak peek!(and TDIPT offerings!)

Here is a sneak peek of my newest chart called Angels Among Us. It will be released early next week,(or maybe later this week if things go well!) I am loving the way these turned out and I especially love them on the Vintage Examplar-they just look so good! They come with the full alphabet and numbers charted so you can personalize them if you want to.

And here is a sneak peek at one of the items I have for sale on TDIPT this month. They will go live on the site at 10PM tonight. Hop on over to the mercantile for some awesome prim decor for your Christmas decorating!

And my little Carmel puppy is doing great! She is growing fast and learning to be housebroken(slowly). She has the sweetest disposition-we all just love her so much!

Have a great week!

~Annie

My new puppy!

We just adopted Carmel today! She is a shepherd mix~mixed with what we're not sure! She is a rescue, and she is 11 weeks old.We are so excited and happy, she has a very calm and sweet temperament.

This week on ebay!

Check out these little acorns!

Aren't they primitively SWEET! I have them at auction this week for 3 days only! 2 are stitched on 32 ct. and 1 is stitched on 28. They have wool caps and twiggy stems. Their caps are embroidered with herringbone stitch. Don't miss out on these wonderful linen and wool delights!

Acorn Pinkeep Auction

An angel ornament

For Isabel, who sadly doesn't have any cross stitch ornaments yet! Its only taken me 11 years! LOL!!!