Hey, This Works

The Stitchery also still has mail-in order forms

It could certainly be used for the cover piece:

My favorite thing is the fish logo on the computer.  How the glasses are staying on is a point of curiosity, though.

I'm about ready to choose a next cross-stitch project.  Knitting, too, to be honest.  I set out to keep a record of all my completed projects (and all the books I read) this year, but forgot to log a lot.  Let's see if I can do better in 2025.

 

Let's Figure This

So, now that all the Advent cross-stitch pieces are done, what do I do?  Each piece is 3 inches square, so if I wanted to make them into a quilt, how much fabric would I need?  And how would I do it --- bind each piece somehow so that they would anchor more easily to the fabric?  This will require some distance and reflection.

Did you know catalogs still have these in them?  I am seriously considering ordering something from Herrschners just to use it.

It reminds me of when you would send rolls of films away to be developed.  The wait was exciting and seemed interminable.

Bad weather blew by or around us, but there's been enough rain hanging around that my left side sinuses are still causing supreme troubles.  Still, I finished a gray baby alpaca hat for myself.  Nothing special --- just a ribbed pull-on hat.  Don't know what my next stitching project will be.  Just another decision to be made...

Time? Week? Estimates?

Does anyone else get kind of confused about what day it is during this time of year?  This should not be a Saturday.  Christmas on a Wednesday was weird, and I guess the sleeping schedules and all the non-weekend football have me twisted up.

At least I'm not alone.

The Headache

Because rain was on the way, is here, and will be here through tomorrow.

Thankfully, there's loads of football to just lounge back and watch, including 

It was an entertaining game, as a few of the bowl games have been.  Still, Anchor Down and everything!

Love Fest

Christmas Eve, I went to YouTube to find, maybe, a nice Yule Log with some Christmas music, but came across something else.

It was a nice night.

Today We Enjoy...

...Christmas Eve!  My favorite day/night of the year.  Everything slows down, the world goes quiet, and we can follow Santa around the world through the great work of NORAD.  (Is anyone else obsessed with this?  I love it.)

This means, of course, that Advent cross-stitching has ended.  Yesterday

Today

General Tiny Needle Tuesday fare is

I am so pleased with this.  I might make more than two more!

Cracker-wise 

A fortune-telling fish and a bottle opener keychain.  One will be travelling to Atlanta tomorrow.  Can you guess which?

Briton and I did lunch today, as the last couple of years, finding someplace open for dinner has been a real chore.  We went to Another Broken Egg, had good food and excellent conversation.  Hannah is cooking for us tomorrow, so we should all be full for present-opening!

May your Christmas Eve be calm and happy.  May your Christmas Day be full of love, excitement and surprises.  Thank all of you for your friendships and inspiration.

Tiny, Wee, Extremely Little Versus Enormous

 Look at this bowling set!

I'm not entirely sure where I'll play, but I promise I will.  (And note: a purple crown!)

Then, on the other end of the size spectrum, a big ol' die.

Now, I put "6" up because I've always liked it, but I didn't realize "2" was going to look like sad eyes.  Hopeful eyes?  Bored eyes?  We all anthropomorphize differently.

Even Logic Fails to Help

What is this?  Really.  What is this?

Is it a checkerboard?  If so, I can't figure out a way to fill in enough black squares to make it 64.

Is it a picnic cloth?  What does that have to do with Christmas?  Part of a striped scarf?  A wrapping paper* design?  A quilt?  For the life of me, I don't know what it is and why it's part of the Advent project.

Cracker-wise, last night was an orange crown and a tiny Rubik's Cube.

I have never had any luck at all with a Rubik's Cube, so this will remain cute and unturned.

This morning, another orange crown, and a little bag tag.

(Forgive the paper towel;  I was having an apple fritter.)

Tonight, a pretty shade of blue crown, and a ring toss game.  I've always loved little games --- remember the round ones where you had to roll the BBs into the holes?  Like those.  Loved them.

*I didn't mention it yesterday, but another proof of Kim's and my twinitude is that we both had jobs as gift wrappers.  So there's that.

The Wrapping

I enjoy wrapping presents.  All those years at the jewelry store didn't sour me on it.  (Though customers who were super-picky about the ribbon being perfectly centered on the box or something else ridiculous did hit the occasional nerve.)  The best part, by far, --- and we've discussed this here before --- is zsushing the scissors through the wrapping paper.  You can't even get mad if you cut the paper the wrong size.  You get to zsush again!

I'm thinking of wrapping because this is my Advent piece today:

I'm unhappy with the "24" in yellow --- that will probably be changed.  The little gift, though, is cute as can be.  I still like this yellow very, very much.  (It's DMC 444, if you're curious.)

The first Christmas cracker was opened this morning.  This pattern is so lovely, don't you think?  I suspect Twinnie sees it as collage fodder.

Inside, a green paper crown (there's always a paper crown) and this tiny deck of tiny playing cards:

I can play tiny games of Solitaire!

One word: Tap was crazy unhappy with me wearing the paper crown.  There shan't be, therefore, any photos of me in the crowns.  There will be reports on their colors, though.

Very Exciting

Another little ornament.

My favorite thing is the one white stitch standing for reflection.

But, bigger than that even, (literally and figuratively) a gift from Twinnie!

Christmas crackers, and aren't they pretty?  I'll open one  tomorrow, and then one through Christmas Eve.  I'll keep you updated.

Extremely Likeable

 Look at this little pudding:

I've never had a Christmas pudding, but I am a sucker for sticky toffee ones.  This is definitely going to end up as one of my favorite Advent pieces.

How to Worry

 This is the holiday time when all the questions start.  Do I have the right gifts for everyone?  Do I have things for the stockings?  Do I have all the groceries I need for a while --- especially all the pets' stuff?  I don't want to have to get out with all the Last Minuters.

In Advent stitching, all along, I thought this was a tree, but stitching it, I was getting candle vibes.

It is a tree, I realize, but I can use my imagination every now and again.

There's swelling of my gum and palate today, and my arms and shoulders ache from being tensed up during the process yesterday.  After my therapy session today, though, I am obligation-free until Christmas.  Which means keeping my own hours, sleeping when and as long as I want.  Which I'm looking forward to, especially after My Darkness of late.

Every Little Frickin' Thought

That Came to Me While Having the Second Abutment Put In By the Oral Surgeon This Afternoon.

I realize that "All I Want for Christmas is You" is a good song, if I heard it 400 times less every day, it would be such a relief.

I wonder if there are instructions with that paper 3D Nativity?

(There weren't.)

That little reindeer head will have to be my TNT entry.  I also need to get some more floss to finish the ornaments/ flourish tree.  Could start one of the others.

They put me in a different room every time I've  been here.  There's the beach theme in each one, though, so that's nice.

I hope that Chewy order gets here today (It didn't.). Tap is a!most out of his favorite treats.

So, I go back in three weeks to see how the abutment is doing.  I'm on my second year of this, and am just tired of it.

The Words

 

Limits Versus Empathy

Each time I post about my mental  health, I invariably receive (public and private) messages of support and understanding and identification. 

Thank you.

The phrase "You Are Not Alone" has become rather stale, but it is generally true.  There are certainly people who have no one to reach out to, or no way to get to them even if they did.  There are people who will NOT reach out.  (Lots of reasons;  another post.)  You should reach out if it is at all possible.  There are hotlines (I've visited a few.)  Try.  You've got to try.  And keep trying.

This Was Expected

 There was going to be a candy cane along the way.  We all knew it.

This Here

I will not lie --- things have been very dark for me lately.  Very.  My Christmas tree has been up for a week, a week and a half, with the lights and ornaments in boxes on the floor.  I just couldn't do it.

Today, I forced myself to put them on.  No ornaments yet, but the Army /Navy game is tomorrow, and practically every year, I decorate my tree while watching it.  So that helped some.

I'm not sure why I'm even putting up a tree.  Pretty sure we'll go to Hannah's Christmas Day, so no one's around to look at anything.  Habit, I suppose.

Take a look at his guy:

A cute little sailboat!  It's sort of an odd thing in the midst of everything else, but it's sweet, don't you think?  The pattern has a face on the hull, which I thought made it look creepy/silly, so I made an editorial/designer/whatever decision and left it off.

E L F

Another day, another snowflake!

 No, really --- it's there.  Dated with the light blue Twin suggested I backstitch the flakes with.  I like the look, but I'm going to test other colors.  Light grey maybe?  Stay tuned.

More than making up for that snow blindness, the last day of Plucky Knitter's Advent brought this yarn:

See the name?

I love a yarn with a good name.  Thank you for a fun twelve days, Plucky Knitter

Two Weeks!

At least that's what my Advent Calendars say.  Remember when "two weeks 'til Christmas" was an eternity?

I came across some spare worsted the other day and decided to make a cowl.  Sideways.

I like it.  There will be more.

For Day Eleven's mini

a cute star!  With a saucy little sprig of holly tucked behind its ear.

Plucky Knitter has sent teas and candy and stitch markers and a wonderful little tealight

and these snazzy scissors:

Nice already, yes?  But look, there's more

How ingenious is that?  I'm sort of looking for things to snip, so I can take the cover on and off.

Tuesday Happenings

Technically, this is a Monday Happening.  I stitched it yesterday and have been sort of looking it ever since.  I'm sure it's meant to be a snowflake.

Still, it induces studying stares.  This will most definitely need backstitching of some type, but where?  Connect the dots somehow?  Just stitch around each one?  I may have to just sit down with some graph paper and play.

Today, things are much clearer.  And cuter.

A couple of Nativity scenes got unpacked yesterday, and when I pulled this piece out, I wondered 

"Why is the Holy Mother holding a peanut?"  I knew it wasn't a peanut, of course, but the carving sure makes it look like it is.

Listen, Friends

 Men driving their wives to a craft store is almost always unendingly entertaining.  Now, some of them will just wait in the car, eventually propping their left arm under the driver's side window and drumming their fingers.

Others will leave the cars and go into the store with his wife.  These might be the cutest of all types, because they are trying to play along.  They push the shopping cart and look at fabrics and nod at the appropriate times.  They also try to figure out how to get spoken answers from their phone while looking for tree ornaments for grandchildren:  "What is the celestial sign for late June?"  (Preston was born in early June, Brandon in late, in case you were wondering.)  I left before that couple was done, but I did wish them a quiet well as I walked by.

The last type?  Going into the store with the wife, already conversing in the parking lot:

Wife: "Put that jacket on;  it's still raining."

Husband: "I was just hot in the truck;  that's why I took it off.  You're not planning on going to Target, too, are you?"

(Target and Joann share a parking lot.)

Wife: "Not if I can find my stuff in here.  I don't wanna get in all that mess."

Husband: "Good."

Excited

This little tree makes me very happy.

The Wisdom

I found this sticker the other day

and what it says saddened me.  We just sort of melt into words that people can lie with or rationalize with, or worse?

Then I rethought and found honest joy there.  If we are stories, we are remembered.  People have to have memories of us (good or bad) to weave into tales.  I tell Briton and Hannah stories about Dale all the time.  There are many, many stories about my parents stored in my brain.  Being a story is good --- it helps you last.

So, a toast to stories and storytellers.

See how I tied things together there?

This little daily guy has me a wee bit perplexed.  I don't know whether to backstitch around it.  You can tell by the date that red wouldn't work, there's no point in using white, and I think black would be too severe.  You can see it just fine like this, don't you think?