Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 1

I started out with Happy Hearts by Birds of a Feather. I am stitching it on 35 ct. cappachino from Weekes Dye Workes, using my own conversion from GAST to Crescent Colors because I have a lot of CC threads in my stash.

This is what I was able to accomplish in one day. Not much but I was interrupted quite frequently. I really really love this design and would love to keep going on it. It might be the first one I come back to on Jan.16th! We'll see...

Now onto the next start, which for me is going to be Noah's Stocking by CHS. Tune in tomorrow for an update on that one!

Workes by hand in 2010

Well it was really fun to go back over my pictures and look at all of the things I created in 2010. I really made more dolls than I realized, as I didn't really begin to focus on cross stitch again until about September! 

Here is my collage of needle workes:

And here are all of the dolls I created:

So I feel like it was a productive year.

I have so many more things planned for 2011. I want to work some more with wool, and hopefully even get my rug hooking out again. I actually have 2 more cross stitch pieces finished that I m making into charts right now. I didn't want to include them in the collage as they are not yet published. 

So I feel actually a bit ahead of the game for 2011, something that I can assure you has NEVER happened before. I have to attribute it to the fact that most of my kids are grown and I actually have a little more of that most sought after commodity, 

"TIME"!!!

New folk doll for sale at the TDIPT Mercantile

Please visit "the Merc" to see my latest handmade folk doll "Jane". She is one of a kind and will come to you signed and dated. 

I am also offering FREE SHIPPING!

She also comes with a punch needle valentine cupboard hanger!

Thanks for looking!

Click here to go to the Merc!

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!