Happy February!

January seemed like the longest month in the world, but I'm still surprised it's February already! My beautiful dream of working on everything I own this year is going pretty well - I think I'll be done by September 5, but then I keep opening boxes and finding a bunch more projects. All of them are my favorite thing that I've ever stitched! I have one finish for the month, which is an old CrossStitcher magazine kit. It's the cover for a needle book, but I just stick all my needles on a magnet, so I'm not sure I can see that happening. But I really like the pinks and the geometric valentiney combination.

My goal is to get a stitch in on 5 pieces a day, you can see the whole project here. A lot of the pieces are old New Start a Day, StitchMaynia, and Ultimate Crazy January Challenge pieces, started and then forgotten, so it's been really fun seeing everything emerge from the vault. Looking at old photos is supposed to help stave off dementia, I'm hoping that looking at old stitching does the same thing! hahaha! 

Some of my closer to complete pieces, in the sense you can tell what they're supposed to be, are...

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds:

The Circus Comes to Town:

Prairie Schooler Santa Ornament:

It Is Well:

Frolic in the Foliage:

Stained Glass Peacock:

In other news we took a lovely trip to 
Gila Bend, Arizona.  It's a town you drive straight through if you're going between Phoenix and California, but it has a spaceship hotel that I've always wanted to stay in, and some metal dinosaur sculptures in front of one of the gas stations, and it's by some little mountains DH wanted to climb, so we spent a weekend there. These pictures are from the hotel website, you can see how fun it was if you like outer space stuff!

New Year's Resolution: Read more books. I didn't say more than what, haha! This was my lone read for January, and I only read it because I was getting rid of it.  

This is the most recent picture I took of Kuna, she's turning 16 this year and we're so glad she's healthy and seems pretty content, just loafing all day. Her life used to be a lot more exciting but we can't take her out like we used to because she starts limping if she walks more than about two blocks - she trots down our street and back and that's enough for her. 

I hope everyone's staying warm - it's supposed to get to 80 degrees here this week with clear blue skies, my sympathies to people who are dealing with snow and icy roads and everything else. Ukraine doesn't even have electricity because Russia bombed all their power plants, so send special prayers for them if you're the praying type.

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Happy WIPocalypse!

 

This is the post to introduce yourself, your projects and goals for the year.  You can see the info and how to check in at Measi's Blog.  I'm Claudette and I've been married for 31 years now, which seems like a long time but it's like I blinked, and here we are.  I was the world's happiest pastry cook and then my aunt's husband died and she was midway through dementia so I was her caregiver until she died in 2024, almost exactly 3 months after my dad died from heart failure.  I dropped out of my life for almost 3 years to take care of her, and I expected to drop right back into everything but the motivation hasn't been there. 

Cross-stitching is one of things that got me through and I'm eternally grateful that one of my grandmothers tried so hard to make a lady out of me by teaching me things like the womanly art of cross-stitch. She failed on many, many, levels, but I did fall in love with those little x's!  

I volunteer with a Ukrainian organization and do whatever I can to help their war effort.  I also teach Christian cooking classes for our Sunday School; we learn about the saint or festival of the day and make a cake that seems appropriate (spice cakes for epiphany!)  My husband is an avid hiker and rock climber and we have a rescue dog who's almost 16 - she's definitely got some sort of doggie dementia but she's still warm and furry and she knows we're her pack so we're enjoying whatever time we have left with her.

My goal for the year is to stitch on every project I have - I've done new-start-a-day challenges 3 times and I've started plenty of other things, and every last one of them was my favorite thing I've ever stitched on, so I'm hoping to say hi to all of them and let them know they're loved, and also to see if any of them have lost some of their luster.  If I've counted right I'll get through everything this year if I stitch on five things a day, so that's what I'm going for. So far I'm really loving having some structure in my day - I've needed it! I have a page for all of it because I don't want to be posting 35 pictures a week, and if I just folded them into my blog and started posting every day I'd feel like I needed to comment on them or my day or something. These are some of the things I've stitched on this year, you can see the whole parade so far here.

Bye Bye 2025!

I'd like to say this is the year I got used to my dad and auntie dying, but it wasn't, although I may be getting there.  I'd also like to say this is the year I got all my ducks in a row for my own demise, but it also wasn't, although it also may be getting there. 

 I'm glad this year is ending; it's been not awful but not great, and I haven't felt like myself for a lot of the year.  I'm hoping to really bounce back and get some pep in my step in 2026. I got a ukulele for Christmas and have lessons starting next week, and I also joined a folk dancing group, and I'm hoping that will get me out of the house and be in less of a funk.  The AI tells me I need to stitch on 4.81 pieces every day to get to all my starts in a year, so we'll see how that goes, haha.  So the year-end wrap up.....

FINISHES:

(If you want to read all about them, I keep the stories of my finishes here)

READING:

OTHER STATS:

I haven't taken a picture of Kuna in a while but here's a little throwback to wish you a happy new year.  She figured out a way out of our yard and has given us a new project of keeping her off the streets. She's 15 now and we consider it dementia related wandering. We can't let her off leash at the beach anymore because she just trots away, but she's fit and happy and I'm so grateful that she's still so healthy!

Thanks to everyone who's been blogging about your stitching, your trips, your lovely families - you have brightened so many of my gray days. I hope you all have a wonderful next year!

Happy December!

 

Let's see what's on the camera roll:

Balinese Elephant has a bunch of dog hair, lol:

Dinosaurs has more leaves:

Closet UFO's has the closet started:

Flutter of Butterflies has all the butterflies started:

Cheese Sampler has some cheeses:

and Marmalade has the bottom squares going:

                                        

My reading for the month was mostly finishing up Halloweeny reading from last month, plus a totally 70's book that popped out of my storage unit - I don't even remember if it was auntie's or mine, but to the little free library it went:

Had my annual jaunt up north to work on the Rose Parade.  They have a whole different systemn for volunteers this year so the float barn was pretty empty and a little sad, but the work goes on and I did have a pleasant time with the tiny group of us that were there.  The float we were working on was San Francisco, if you squint you can see the row houses in the back, also known as the "Painted Ladies."

The mission for the day was cutting the petals of statice - this is always one of the first jobs because they want the petals to dry. Rose Parade floats are required to be completely covered with plants, so the petals are used like blue paint; these will be on one of the houses. The extra petals will be part of a US flag for another float.

If I stand on tiptoe I can see the back of the storage unit so yay me! DH is ready to tell me to just keep it, haha, he's definitely sick of endless boxes of stuff coming through the house!

Happy November!

Woo hoo! I love the end of Daylight Savings and the sweet slide towards Christmas!

On the stitchy front things are cruising along..

Promise of Spring has a couple more letters:

Marmalade has a little bit of everything everywhere:

Peace and Love has a P:

and Big Red Ship of Life has a corner started:

Stitcher's Blessing has the second line started:

and Ho Ho Ho has more beard filled in:

I've gotten rid of a few bags of stuff. I'm still saving way too much of Auntie's stuff but I can stand my whole self in my storage unit and lay on the bed in the guest room so that's progress - it doesn't sound like much but it's hard work throwing stuff out! 

I volunteered at the Ukrainian Museum and they have such lively cross stitch there:

and I read 3 books, which is three more than last month but not that many.  I'll try to improve my mind more this month!

A glorious fog is enveloping our house right now - it's thick enough that when the wind blows water falls off the leaves and it sounds like it's raining. I have some painting to do for All Soul's Day, then some stitching while I watch Green Bay so this should be a great Sunday!

 

The Spice of Life!

No, not pumpkin spice, haha! Novelty - rumor has it that it's one of the keys to happiness;n maybe that's why I like having a bunch of WIPs - it's always a thrill to pull out an old friend!

This is Promise of Spring by Silver Creek Samplers, I got some more letters done on it:

This was a kit from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine that I never started. I had a church conference this weekend so I brought up a little kit with a dream of finishing it, but hahaha.  They're Russian nesting dolls:

This is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from the Stitcherhood.  I think all she needs is her face and her skirt to be done:

This is the chin of  Sugar Skull from Yiota's Cross Stitch:

This is Blackwork Candy Corn from the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue of 2018:

And all the animals are started on the Circus is in Town by Tiny Modernist:

The weather here is turning perfect for stitching, fingers crossed we get more rain this week!