Nov 25/18

My current philosophy about Christmas is to do a little bit every day and eventually, it will all come together. I stitched away at this ornament yesterday evening. The fella' went to bed early with a headache so I watched the first two episodes of the most recent season of the "Great British Bake-off" and stitched. 

I have been working on more dish cloths as I am thinking of gifting them in bundles of two, one with the variegated holiday yarn and one white cloth. So far, 5 white ones are completed and a sixth is on my needles. The other women at my book club meeting on Friday night were fascinated by watching me knit while we all talked. They found it freaky that I could knit while talking and looking at them because my fingers know this pattern so well now. Truthfully, I found it freaky that they were all watching me so closely! It is interesting to me because I grew up in a rural community where every one knits, sews, quilts, etc. The women in my book club are 15-20 years younger than me and so many of them wish that they knew how to do these things, but have never learned whereas I learned because my mom and her friends were always working on such projects. While I certainly appreciate the convenience of mass produced items, I feel sad that so many people have not known the joy of sewing or knitting or making things by hand. Thoughts from anyone else?

Well, back to hauling laundry to my neighbours' house because our washer is making some warning sounds. Thank goodness for kind neighbours who are allowing me to traipse through their house with my laundry!

Happy stitching!

Nov 19/18

Well, would you look at that. The first ornaments of the 2018 Christmas crafting fiesta are now completed. They are cross stitched on plastic canvas and backed with red felt stitched onto the canvas with ribbons sewn in. These ornaments are for the fella's kids so they were the most important to finish. Our postal service is being hit with rotating strikes as the union tries to put some pressure on Canada Post with the Christmas parcel season rolling in. These ornaments and other assorted items will be put in the mail next week. My philosophy is that it is best that they arrive a little early than too late.

I have listed a few kits for sale on some of the sale groups to see if I can reduce my stash any further. So far, there have been no bites, but it just takes one person to really want the item. I am encouraged to open up some more boxes and list some more items for sale to reduce the stash. I set a goal for myself that everything has to fit comfortably on the shelving unit I have in the spare room. Currently, there are 3 boxes of crafting supplies sitting on the floor beside the book shelves so this could be a bit of a challenge! These kits are all listed for $5 except the dragonfly which is listed for $20. I just want the stuff gone!

Nov 12/18

Today was not a crafting kind of day here. Today was a "get things done" kind of day here since the fella' was home for the Remembrance Day holiday. He was up on a chair taking down light fixtures and washing them while I tackled some paper work that I had put on the back burner. Light fixtures are clean and fly-free, paperwork is filled out and printed, and the dogs were taken on a lovely walk along the rail trail, on a section that was new to us.

After our walk, I set about on another task that I have been putting off....selling off some of the stash. A few months ago, I had done a very quick skimming through the boxes of patterns in the spare room. My boxes were full of collections of Teresa Wentzler, Paula Vaughn, Lavender & Lace, Mirabilia and so many more. So many patterns that will never get stitched by me! The fella' was grumbling recently about waiting for an appointment with the career manager to see if we stay here in Greenwood or if we move in the next posting season. While the military looks after the move for us, I keep trying to reduce the clutter in this house and selling off those things which I really will never use. Once the dogs were in the door and my jacket was hung up, I headed to the craft room to pick out some patterns to sell and took their pictures for the listings:

               
 

I belong to a facebook group that is for Canadians to buy and sell cross stitch patterns. I had been having some anxiety about whether my patterns would sell, was it worth the effort and would people want to buy from me. Plus, there was a general paralysis about just putting myself out there and getting things done. You can imagine my surprise when I sold 3 patterns within 10 minutes of the listing. The fella' is amused that there are other "me's" out there because he does not understand the affliction.

There are 3 parcels, containing 6 patterns, on the table to be taken to the post office in the morning. Now, I don't expect that all of my patterns will sell so quickly, but I am glad that I made the effort and I will look through my boxes again to cull more patterns.

Happy stitching!

Nov 6/18

There are days when I wonder what the heck I have been up to because it is the end of the week, I am exhausted, my house looks like a bomb has gone off and I feel like I have done nothing except work and vacuum up pet hair. Apparently, there has been a little bit of this

and a little bit of that 

and a few other things going on around here. Hallowe'en is a favourite night of mine with the kids out and about in costume and I go a bit nuts with carving jack'o'lanterns.

For good measure, there were chocolate chip cookies made as well.

The jack'o'lanterns have been chopped and roasted. Pumpkin soup was made yesterday, muffins will be made today and the rest will be frozen for treats for the dogs. The dish cloth pattern has finally morphed into something that I am quite happy with. There have been a few adjustments made to the size and the number of rows within the pattern to where I am quite happy with it.

One of the downsides of the Hallowe'en decorations would be this fright I gave myself the other night when I walked by the front door during the wind storm. Our peeping tom was dealt with ASAP after I got over my scare!

Happy stitching!