The Countdown is ON – an Update

The countdown to what? Well, several things, actually. Christmas, certainly, though I have that relatively under control, assuming the mail keeps running! How did I manage before online shopping? Oh yeah, I remember – I HATED it 🙂  If it weren’t for picking up an order at JCPenney, you wouldn’t catch me in a maul this year 🙂 And no, that is NOT a typo. Another countdown is my oldest leaving for the Navy; he’s ready to go, but I’m not sure I am ready. I know he will be fine, but it’s a whole other world out there than it was the day I left to begin my service 29 years ago; we knew who the enemy was then, whereas today, it could be anybody – and that scares me. It’s not combatant vs. combatant anymore, it’s combatant vs. ANYONE who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – Paris being a perfect example. My niece and her husband were IN Paris, celebrating their 5th anniversary, on the 13th of November. Like my BFF Cass, we now both have a major terrorist attack to mar our birthdays. What is wrong with the world? Being agnostic, I don’t ordinarily “pray”, but the next few years may hear me doing just that, frequently, as I send my children out there to deal first hand with the bad things in the world; I can only hope we have helped prepare them for the unknown….

On a lighter note, we celebrated Thanksgiving last week, with the usual spread. I will of course amend my usual statement that there was enough food to feed an army, to enough food to feed a NAVY 🙂 Since I suspect neither will be here for the big holidays next year, we are TOTALLY doing the Chinese take-away next Thanksgiving! DH says we aren’t, but yeah, who’s King of the Kitchen? That’d be ME 🙂 Chinese it is!

I have done some stitching since I last posted. I completed my rotation of Autumn Fairy, and while I didn’t get nearly as much of her wings done as I’d hoped, I did get a good bit done. I don’t think I can finish her in one more rotation, but I may be close enough that I extend it another week 🙂 Here she is, as of 2 weeks ago:

I also made a great bit of progress on my BtB Summer Cove – I am almost to SHEEP! I should be able to finish it soon – if not the next IHOP, shortly thereafter. Which is good, since this will be my ONLY BIG finish this year 🙁 I guess that’s what happens when you set your own bar too high – you trip yourself up 🙂 But in another couple of years, I am going to have a HUGE pile of finishes, I just know it! Here’s Summer Cove – those little blanks are SHEEP!:

At the November PINS, we had our Christmas ornie exchange. I was again spoiled, this time by Jean, who made this wonderful piece for me:

My exchange recipient was the same Jean, strangely enough, and while the piece I stitched came out pretty cool, if I do say so myself, I am rather disappointed at the finished piece; it ended up being slightly off-center, after the glue dried, so I don’t know if I had it pulled so tight that it moved a bit before the glue was completely set, or if I really just didn’t have it centered. This is reallllyyyy bugging the crap out of me – but because I didn’t get it done until the weekend before – and then worked a long week before the exchange, I didn’t have time or energy to disassemble/re-assemble it the way I had intended it to be 🙁 But here it is, before it was quite done (I undid the braid for the bottom tassel):

I think it was a resounding yes that we do the exchanges again next year 🙂 I WILL center my piece better, I promise! Heck, I might even start a week or two earlier, give myself some wiggle room…. Nah, pro’ly not.

So, after I put Autumn Fairy away, and because I am saving Sparkly Hummingbird to work on over the Christmas holidays, the only thing I had left to rotate was Monet’s Water Lilies, which did enjoy the long Thanksgiving weekend. I had actually planned to post an update last week, so took a photo last week:

And, since I didn’t actually get an update done, thanks to EVERYONE cleaning their desks off onto mine before they left for the long weekend, here is what it looks like now, after another week’s progress:

So, aside from Sparkly Hummingbird, I have now touched everything in a year, and some of the new ones, twice, depending on where they fell in the Startapalooza 🙂 I plan to continue this same 2-week rotation into the new year, though, depending on when my surgery gets scheduled, I do plan to have a New Year’s Start – probably another Chat, Deep Blue Sea 🙂 Because I am that crazy… This week, I think I am going to work on my AAN Christmas Tree, that should be a pretty quick finish (and then I’ll have 2!), and some other secret stitching. Hummingbird may come out next week, or maybe the week after – we’ll see 🙂

If I don’t post again before year’s end, I wish all of you and yours a wonderful holiday season, filled with peace, joy and love. And stitching, too, of course!