Santa, can you spare an elf or two?

Another Christmas is upon us, and, as is "tradition" here with me, I once again find myself hanging my head in shame regarding the many incomplete Christmas items I had hoped to stitch in time for the 25th.

First off is this Dimensions Gold kit which I've admired for a couple of years and finally purchased from EBay.  I opened the kit this morning just to glance at the charts, threads, and instructions and immediately felt my heart racing like a kid opening his gifts under the tree!  That joy and thrill of starting a new project was slightly hindered when I pulled out the "pre-sorted" threads for the project and found this:

Can we say, "Ugh!"  However, I'm undaunted and will persevere in untangling this "rat's nest" of threads and, hopefully, will start stitching this shortly.   I mean, what's wrong with adding one more project to the ever-growing WIP pile, right? (Don't faint - this is the stack presently tottering next to my stitching spot: 

Yes, I know, I do suffer from a case of SADD (Stitcher's Attention Deficit Disorder) which is why there really are do few photos of things actually FINISHED on this blog.   Lol! 

Aside from the stack there, I have a Scarlet Letter sampler calling my name over on my Millenium frame and stand.  And, these three WIP's that are in various states of completion (or should I say various states of "beginning?)  

Santa - can't you spare an elf or two who knows how to stitch to come down to sunny Florida and away from the cold North Pole?  

Away We Ride (Blackbird Designs)

Hearts and Holly (Lizzie Kate) 

Quaker Christmas II - Songs of the Season

Merry Christmas to all of my stitching friends out there! I have to run now -

that Dimensions kit is calling my name! 

Hurry -- SANTA'S taken Nancy hostage at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe!

Santa is busy over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe! 

If you haven't visited Nancy's wonderful blog 

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

then get on over there and leave a note for Nancy, errr, I mean Santa ...

you see, I know Nancy is SUPER GENEROUS with her lovely giveaways of her gorgeous threads, 

BUT....

I have a sneaky suspicion that SANTA may have taken our dear Nancy HOSTAGE!!

Yes, that's right! 

Go look for yourselves -- she's giving away so many things each day, the only explanation is

that Santa (and his elves) must be forcing her to work like crazy over there! 

We'll know for sure if we see his white beard flecked with "Sampler Blue" or "1795 Green" 

or any of the other HUNDREDS of colors Nancy dyes her threads with! 

Mark my words! 

If you find any multi-colored fingerprints on the dish of cookies left for Santa

on the morning of December 25th,

then I know my suspicions were correct!  ;-)

Good luck on entering Nancy's giveaways, 

and check out her shop link while you're on her page too! 

Nancy is very talented, and I'm sure you'll love her large pallette of colors!  

Advent Calendar Blog Hop - Day Two

Welcome to the Advent Calendar Blog Hop! 

Prairie Schooler 2013 Santa

18 count Country Mocha Aida 

In case you didn't know, Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching 

is hosting her annual Advent Calendar. 

 Make sure you check her blog each day for daily surprises behind each door! 

Today is Day Two of Advent which means we're getting closer to Christmas with each passing minute.

No wonder poor Santa has his Cuckoo Clock chirping and his trusty compass and clock both 

attached to his wrist!  Poor guy.  And here I thought I had it rough trying to keep up with 

Christmas stitching. (Unlike Santa, I gave up on a lot of my plans - not enough hours in the day

to stitch all the Shepherd's Bush stockings I wanted to make - LOL) 

My motto: There's always next year! 

Jo asked that each of us participating in the Advent Blog Hop share a recipe or tradition

which our culture or family follows each Christmas. 

I come from strong Scandinavian roots, having a maternal grand-mother who was Swedish

and a paternal grand-mother who was Norwegian. 

Every year we spent Christmas Eve at my Norwegian grand-mother's house, and I miss

that tradition terribly now that she's gone.  One tradition which she always made sure

we followed was the Scandinavian tradition of having Risengrod, or rice porridge, Christmas Eve.

 (My grandmother actually made and served rice pudding, not porridge.)

It was DELICIOUS, and no one in our family has 

ever been able to replicate it just like hers despite many attempts.

We'd go to church after dinner, then return to her house for coffee and the rice pudding.

The tradition is to have one almond hidden in the batch.  

Whomever gets the dish with the almond is supposed to have a year of good fortune ahead,

but my grandmother always added a little special wrapped gift to the person receiving the almond. 

I found this link which explains the tradition a bit more and includes a recipe - 

but I'm not vouching for its taste as I've never had this rice porridge before.

Here's to wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holiday! 

Don't forget to eat your Risengrod on Christmas Eve to keep the nissen away! 

Village of Hawk Run Hollow

Finally picked up my framed Village of Hawk Run Hollow on Wednesday, and I'm so pleased with the beautiful framing job which Kathy did over at The Crossstitch Cupboard (Fort Lauderdale).  Karen - the owner of CSC - chose the frame.   I think her choice perfectly suits this piece.  She actually matched the shade of the distressed parts of the frame to a color in the stitched piece, and it looks ideal.  

I stitched this on 40 count Golden Harvest linen by Silkweavers.  The silk flosses I used were a conversion dyed by Vikki Clayton, and I loved stitching with them.  Next BAP is going to be Shores of HRH, but not until I finish the annual Christmas stitching (what am I talking about? I haven't even finished the Halloween stitching I'm working on here! LOL!)

Happy weekend, everyone.  And enjoy your "extra hour of sleep! 

2013 Halloween Blog Hop

Pumpkin Pete says, "Thanks for stopping at the next stop on the Halloween Blog Hop!" 

Your blog hop letter is:

In case you're not able to see, your letter is T

Now follow Pumpkin Pete on over to the next blog on your Halloween Hop:

http://needlespinsanddragonflies.blogspot.co.uk/

Dragonflylotus hand spun threads - discount code!

Sorry I haven't posted in ages. 

Today I wanted to post about the beautiful hand spun wool fibers which I've been using to stitch my LHN Sheep Virtues project. Liz at Dragonflylotus Hand Spun Threads has created a beautiful line of 100% wool fibers specifically for this project, but she has all sorts of gorgeous fibers at her site.

If you're a floss hound like I am, you'll be happy to know Liz kindly gave me a code 

for my followers to use towards 10% off your order through November 4th! 

This code is good towards anything on her site.

 The code for your discount is: CABBAGE

I think her wool fibers are perfect for the LHN sheep (baa baa...) but you'll see all sorts of goodies in a wide pallette of colors at her site. 

 If you hurry on over, she also has a Stash Enhancement Special on the Petite Manzanita Silk Palette which is 40% off until Thursday, October 31st!  GREAT BUY!! :-)

And, speaking of Thursday, it's almost HALLOWEEN! Yikes! 

To get in the "spirit" of the holiday, Saturday night I watched the film "The Conjuring" on demand. 

It's based upon an actual case of a New England house haunting in the early 1970's 

and I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare the daylights out of me!  

Check it out if you like scary movies! 

And let me know afterwards if you'd like to play "hide and clap!"  EEK! 

I'm trying my best to finish up "Away We Ride" by Blackbird Designs before Halloween arrives, 

but I still have quite a bit to stitch.  Hoping today will be a marathon stitching day! ;-)

Have fun browsing Liz's site - and use that code (CABBAGE) 

to try out some of her beauties at 10% off !  

I'm back! Two blogs I highly recommend you visit.

Let me begin today by saying, where in the world did August and September go!? Is it just me, or did those months seem to fly by this year?  I am long past due for a blog post, and today I would like to talk about two blogs which I highly enjoy.  I hope you might take a minute between counting stitches this weekend to check them out.  (Just click the titles below to visit them.)  I probably have mentioned these two before, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but they really are worth a look.

First up is Blacksheep's Bit of the Web which is a quite popular blog that you may already follow.  If not, you owe it to yourself to take a look at Edgar's beautiful stitching (and his travel pics, the mouth watering goodies he likes to cook, and his adorable pooches!)   I should warn you, a visit can be a little enabling if you're a shopper - and what stitcher doesn't like shopping, right?  Maybe I'm just very easily tempted to add to my stash when I see his gorgeous work!  If you stop by today, please remember to wish Edgar a Happy Birthday!!  (Hope he doesn't clobber me for sharing that info!)

The other blog I hope you'll visit is by the award-winning designer Theresa Baird, and it's titled Heart's Ease Examplar Workes.  I am already drooling over her latest design, "Norfolk Diligence," which is due to go on sale sometime this month:

What do you think?  This is DEFINITELY making its way to my stash ASAP! I should note that Theresa also stitches her own models, and I think you'll agree she does beautiful work.  I'm a huge lover of samplers with a well designed house in the design, but I really love the border on this piece (isn't that checkerboard border that transforms into the floral border neat?)  I also love the floral bands in this design, as well as that sun and moon on either side of the house!  

I think I own all of her published sampler charts, and I have started stitching "A Maryland Inspiration," which I love (let's face it, I love ALL her designs!) If you go back through her blog, she has been leading a SAL of "A Maryland Inspiration" with suggested stitching for each month and tips for stitching each section -- I'm behind (of course) but I do love having her previous posts to refer to as I work on this piece.  Here's a pic of Theresa's model and the ribbons she won for this design:

I won't spoil the joy of taking a look at her blog by posting ALL of her model pictures here, but I do hope you'll take a minute to browse the border of her blog where you'll find photos of her models and some pics of future releases. I tend to love Christmas designs (and Halloween!) and I'm really looking forward to the chart for "Belsnickle's Victorian Christmas" when it is published.  I'm sure you'll agree it's going to be one you'll want to add to your own Christmas stitching collection: 

Hope everyone has a great weekend full of stitching and blog hopping!  Kevin