Sledding Party

We held an old fashioned sledding party for Isabel and a few of her friends. We live right next door to a park with a big hill that is perfect for sledding. We had lunch and then sledding and then hot cocoa afterwords. I t was lots of fun! Unfortunately my camera battery died while we were out on the hill so I didn't get pictures of everything.

Some of my decorations...

The pretty bowl of punch...

 Out on the hill...

Carmel enjoying the fun... she's a cold-weather dog!

It was super fun!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday full of love and happiness!

Christmas decorating

I have been trying to get some decorating done, but I have also been battling a little bronchitis-yuck! So I don't have as much done as I usually do by this time of year. I took a few pics of what I have so far, but I still have another tree to put up(I love trees and wish I had room for more!), and my nativity, and lots of garland. I also have my TDIPT deadline to think about at the end of the month(haven't started anything yet!), and my daughter Chelsea and I are planning a sledding party for my youngest Isabel and 6 of her friends for next week. The fun never ends! hehe!

This is my doll cabinet which resides in the dining room right now. I have most of my santas and some of my snowmen on top.

And next to the cabinet is my pretty little white tree which I like to decorate with glass ornaments and glass icicles. I love this little tree!

On the other side is my china cabinet where all of my crystal goblets that I got for my wedding live, and also the beautiful rose plates I inherited from my mother-in-law, which came over from Japan with her when she came to this country.
  On top is our American girl doll collection-all dressed in either Christmas or winter attire. My daughters and I collect them. I have Felicity's complete collection except for the new gala dress, which I hope somebody gets me for Christmas!! Chelsea and I especially like the historic dolls, but Isabel likes the modern girls.

And here are the rest of my snowmen, and my cross stitch Christmas stockings.

And last but not least my tree which is on my sampler wall. We had to put the tree up on a table this year to keep it out of the reach of our new puppy, so the star is actually wired behind the tip! Otherwise it just wasn't going to fit! LOL! Its always something! I have many more samplers to add to this wall, but they are not all framed yet. The tree I let Isabel decorate-which is why the ornaments are all kind of close together and not exactly balanced. For years I let the kids put the ornaments on and then while they are in school I usually rearrange them because it really BUGS my design sense. But this year I have been sick, so I haven't rearranged them yet. Do you do that, or are you able to just let thm hang where the kids put them? hehe!
  Next I will be putting up my 3rd tree, which has all my cross stitch and more primitive ornaments on it. More pics to follow...

Merry Christmas!

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