Snow for Christmas

The view from the front porch. You can see how deep the snow is as you look at the top of the garage. Methinks I need to get the shovel out or no one will be visiting us.
Kori, snow dog extraordinaire, playing in the snow as he absolutely loves to do. There is no such thing as too much snow for this dog.
The tree in the front covered in ice and snow.
Kori on yet another adventure. Who knows what needs to be rescued from the snow in the back yard but our intrepid explorer will find them.
Am stitching on birthday gifts so can't share a photo but thought you might like to see our latest Christmas time snowfall. Definitely a white Christmas here. The dog is the photo is our 100 lb Chocolate lab up to his nose in the snow. He loves it.

Have a great stitchy day. Marjo

In answer to your comments, we won't stay home, it will be off to work as usual. The roads will be plowed and you drive slow but there is no such thing as a snow day in Alaska. Coming from Georgia it was a huge learning curve for me to even think about driving in it but now I do it regularly. And as to the comment on dogs and snow, this one thinks there is nothing better to plow through the deepest part of snow he can get to. He absolutely loves the snow. Thank you for the sweet comments.

Christmas stitching party

This is the center piece Jeannette made for her lovely table. I love the colors of the flowers.
Gretchen, ever playing the clown decided to model her mesh bag.
Another wonderful dessert by Betty.
Jeannette made us each tote bags personalized for each individual and Betty made us each a fabric mesh stitching bag. Wonderful. We got many sweet gifts to make the season bright.
We had our stitching group party this last week for Christmas. We had a great time. You couldn't ask for a better group of friends to share a hobby with. We had lots of luscious foods and much laughter as always. Jeannette hosted the party this year and set a beautiful table complete with flowers she arranged herself for the occasion. A wonderful time had by all. Merry Christmas.

Hope your season is bright and much time for stitching and friends to share it with.

Marjo

Christmas stitching

I have been contemplating a new start for Christmas this year. I have not made many new starts this year but have been mostly working on items from my WIP pile which is embarrassing large. Even so, I want to stitch on something new for Christmas, maybe even a Christmas pattern. I have all I need already for two of the Joyous Noel from BBD patterns and one of those seem like a good idea. I also have several other kits put together to choose from when I decide to move to something new. For the most part I think I will continue to work on patterns that I started already during 2010 as they are all things I want to stitch. My stitching time is limited enough that I don't have many finishes. None the less, I may choose something new for Christmas.

I have made some progress on Sail Away the SAL that finished with me still out at sea. My son is home for Christmas (excited and happy mama here) so it seemed a good time to try to finish this one. I love the needlebook that was part of the SAL for all the members. It is a sweet and beautiful piece that had a lot of thought and effort put into it. Thank you so much for including me. I hope to get some time to get this piece finished as I really love the design and what it means to me.

I am also working on CHS Alphabets as my strand a day project. It is moving along as well. I will try to post pictures this week.

I want to kit up a few Christmas ornaments this year and work on them and hopefully finish one a month. I love having handmade ornaments for special gifts for Christmas. My goal is also to get all the BBD stockings done - stitched and finished in 2010. I have neglected stitching gifts for my stitching buddies and this next year I hope to remedy that. I have some great ideas for each of them, now if I can stay on schedule to get them done. I have made a good start on the January birthday and have the February birthday design kitted up and ready to go.

I have gotten some threads and a couple of pieces of fabric to stitch some patterns I already have but other than that not many purchases. I am trying to be wise about my purchases. I do find it frustrating to not be able to work on something because I am short on a piece of thread or embellishments. Living where I do it is always hard to find more than just the basics. We did have a shop but she moved the business into her home so getting there for those of us that work is challenging. She keeps a lot of threads but not much silk and very little Lakeside Linen or R&R. It is actually cheaper for me to buy online as she is a small establishment and passes on all the shipping costs to the buyer. So I can get items faster and cheaper online which is sad but it is the reality of living in Alaska. One of my stitching buddies made a trip to the Lower 48 for Thanksgiving and got to a store and got several threads I needed. It is great when it works.

So what about you, are you starting something new for the holidays? Christmas or a New Year's Day start? I am always curious to see what everyone else is planning with their stitching.

Have a great stitchy type day. Marjo

Pictures of retreat

This post is heavy with pictures, just to warn you.


Busy doing what we love to do.
Intent on their stitching.
This is a comparison shot of both the Blackbird Designs Where my heart blooms. The one on the right is Betty's. She handdyed her own fabric and used called for colors. I used fabric called for and used more red than the pattern suggested.
This is the group of happy stitchers.
Picking out a sleeping spot. This is just one of the rooms we could sleep in. Everyone in the group has a favorite spot.
Werewolves, many scary werewolves. All of the folks bake a lot but Betty has a special talent for making fun stuff.
This s where we ate breakfast every morning. We are smack dab in the middle of 20 acres and so although there are people around we don't see or hear them.
Some serious stitching going on with a beautiful sunset in the background. It is a cozy place to settle in for stitching for us all.
Gretchen cosying up to the werewolfe right before she ate him.
Some of our luncheon and snack spread. All that stitching makes you hungry.
This is the area before we settle in for some serious stitching.

Belated retreat report

I cannot tell you how much fun we had on retreat a few weeks ago. Once again life is in fast forward as we blew through Halloween and Thanksgiving and now we are speeding to Christmas. I apologize for waiting so long for this update but life just got in the way.

At our retreat as always we had plenty of food and wonderful fellowship. We were treated to several sunrises and sunsets that were just beautiful and the weather was cold and crisp. We spent Friday hitting all the quilt and fabric stores. Each of us (not me) do many different crafts, some knitting and quilting and sewing along with cross stitch so we hit the available stores which for us are few and far between. This year one of the crowd has taken up scrapbooking so we took in the local stamping store as well. I thought I could get addicted to that as well so was proud of myself with only buying one stamp that was local to our area for my letter writing.

We had lunch at a little diner and each enjoyed our choices then we headed out for more shopping until it was late enough to go to the B&B where we were staying. We settled right in for some stitching time. Everyone pulled out pieces new and old and we stitched and talked about everything the way comfortable friends do. We looked at craft magazines and read books to take a break and of course there were snacks galore. Betty, who is quite the baker brought werewolf cupcakes and we laughed as Gretchen hammed it up smooching the werewolf before cheerfully eating him.

I finished Where the Heart Blooms and got a few stitches in Alphabet of Stitches by Drawn Thread. Of course I took enough projects for all of us but I never know what I will be in the mood to stitch when the time comes. Saturday is our movie night and this time Joan brought Mamma Mia, which I had never seen. We laughed and laughed as only a group of women can. I am sure we would have not found it near as funny had we not all been together watching it. We also had a copy of Rosemary and Thyme we watched over supper Friday and Saturday. We had homemade pizza one night and chicken pot pie the next. We never have to worry about not having enough food. Joan brought a delicious salad and Dee brought the pie. Betty made the pizza and we all brought lunch items, fruit and such so we could either have a meal at lunch or snack. Jeannette brought a black bean hummus that was a hit as well as scones that were eaten up before the end of the weekend. We made more than a little dent in the sweet potato muffins

that Gretchen baked for us. As I said delicious food is always abundant. My friends know how to cook.

On the stitching front we all made great progress on some long term projects and Dee and I even managed a finish. It was great fun and we were thrilled to be together stitching. We are already booked for a time in the spring and again next Fall. We are already plotting menu's and movies and where we will have lunch on the way out. Retreat is always a blast and a much anticipated treat for all of us.

Cannot find the camera so will upload shots when I find it buried somewhere in my stitching room.

Marjo

We lost our girl cat one today

Sorry to share that today we lost our girl cat one. We have two identical cats my husband and son got for me from a rescue place when we lived in Georgia. They had both been mistreated and were tiny. They were the same size and color except for their eyes so we took to calling them girl cat one and girl cat two because unless you were really close you could not tell which was which. They have never grown much and now we have lost one. She was hiding all day yesterday and she was dead when I got up this morning. I am so sad and her litter mate doesn't know what to do. Even the dog is moping. We will miss our dear girl cat one.

Ready for Retreat

I am so ready to go on retreat. We have all day Friday, all day Saturday and over half a day Sunday to stitch. It is a wonderful place and in my humble opinion, my stitching buddies are just the best for sitting around stitching with. We are all different ages and we all stitch different types of designs with actually little overlap of designers and designs. I love seeing what everyone else is working on which is why I love reading blogs about stitching. I will spend the next few days deciding which projects I will take. I almost always take something new to stitch on. Not necessarily a new start but a WIP that has not seen light of day for a long while. I know I will take Where the Heart Blooms by BBD as I am nearing completion with that one. My new old WIP will probably be Drawn Thread Alphabets. I will probably take a small project I might could finish. Not sure what that would be. I will probably take the Sail away and CHS alphabets even though I won't be able to work on all of them but you never know what mood will strike and you can't just go to the stitchy room and get something else. It is the standard joke with my buddies that I bring enough for everyone to stitch on if necessary. Must be prepared. I will try to add some pictures of the projects that make the cut.

This will be great after the last two weeks at work full of overtime and stressful situations. Like I said, I am SO ready to go.

Have a great stitchy week. Marjo