After all the excitement

of Halloween, it's kind of quiet here.

I actually have put more work in Sleepy Hollow. Since the time changed and I'm up at 6AM (and OK with it!), I was up this morning and filled in part of the grey around the angel's wings. It went a lot faster than I remember, but, then again, I was doing some heavy thinking, and sometimes, while doing that, I stitch as fast as I think. I do think I'm going to re-do Ichabod's eye. It's a fantastic French knot, it just looks too big, and I'm anal about doing things right.

I started a new project on Sunday. I just . . . I haven't started a good new project in a while, and I had a really cute Halloween design from an old issue of Cross Stitch! of a . . . what else . . . black cat leading a pumpkin chorus. I have been wanting to do this design for two years, so I decided, it's my birthday week, and I'm gonna start me a new design. So I started it. It's going good so far, but I think they changed the dyelots on a lot of floss between then and now. It will all come together though.

I have to finish my ornament for my exchange partner. I went to Joanne's on Friday night and walked around the quilting section. I was looking for something in a red and black plaid, preferably a flannel, and had hopes of finding thin velvet ribbon. I don't know, it just seemed like the texture of the velvet and the flannel would be elegant together. But . . . they had no flannel. At least not black and red plaid. Heck they had no black and red plaid anything, and the flannel was all monkeys and jammie flannel. I guess the black and red tartan is not "in" this year. But I found a really pretty red, green and navy homespun that looks good with it. I am using hemp cord as a hanger. It has a more simple, rustic feel than my other idea, but it works.

I'll try to post some photos tonight, but I make no promises.

The final update

This is as far as I got yesterday. really not as far as I wanted, but I think I set rather too grand goals. I did enjoy what I got to do. I'm a bit worried about Ichabod's eye, he looks a bit bug-eyed with three wraps of the needle, but two was not nearly good enough coverage. And I guess, too, if I were being chased by a headless horseman holding a flaming death pumpkin, my eyes would be a bit buggish as well.

This is definitely in my stitching rotation now. I think, once I get the tombstone road thing done, it will be a much faster stitch. Have you noticed that Cricket Collection charts don't look as detailed as they usually end up being? They're beautiful, they just aren't simple. And this is a big project. I was thinking that it ranks up there as definitely one of the big ones in my portfolio of work.

6PM update

It's close to 6PM, which means the children will start coming soon. So I wanted to post an update on this. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. It was a busy day--HTB wanted to go on a bike ride, truly terrifying in our hilly neighborhood, I had to go to the store, and I cooked supper, including apple crisp, which we'll have after 9PM. At least Ichabod has a head now--this has been more like a headless horse race for a while. Now to work on Gunpowder

Have a BOOOTIFUL day!

(edited to fix, because I have an issue with fast fingers)

Good morning! Happy Halloween if you celebrate that! Blessed Samhain if you celebrate that! Happy Fall if you don't!

We carved our pumpkin last night. It was pretty fun. Our pumpkin was 37 pounds, and needed an awesome carving. I found a book of templates at Walmart last night along with carving tools, so we went that route. I haven't carved a pumpkin in 15 years, HTB hasn't in 30 years. We decided to go with two carvings on it. It really is a lantern! The pittybulls helped us by eating the pieces of pumpkin that fell on the floor. And by wagging their encouragement!

His side. See the orbs on the right?


My side. This black cat fetish I have is getting a bit out of hand.




And my project for the day for my October 31st SAL. If anyone is interested, please participate! It will be fun!




OK, I have to run, I'm off to start work on this WIP.

Happy October

If you celebrate, are you ready for Halloween?

Do you have your offerings of candy ready? I was just thinking about this. Are you the "cool" house on the block, giving out the full-size bars? It's not so bad to not be a kid at Halloween. Instead of having to rely on the kindness of strangers for your candy booty, and ending up with stuff you don't like (Smarties, anyone want to trade for Smarties? No? I don't blame you), you are in control of what YOU will be eating after Halloween. You decide if you're giving out good candy, and therefore snacking on it for the first few weeks of November, or if you're eating Mary Janes. Maybe you LIKE Mary Janes, though. One thing for this year--I'm not letting the trick or treaters choose, I'll do the choosing. Too much swine flu going around, and SIL's kids like to snack out of our bowl when they come over for my birthday. No need putting them at risk.

If you're not celebrating, are you enjoying the fall? This is the last little bit of, "Aaaaahhhh" before the rush of Christmas. The weather is still pretty nice, though I think I'd better wear a long-sleeved teeshirt handing out candy tomorrow night. I think we get so wrapped up in the quest for Christmas that we forget to appreciate the time between October 1st and Thanksgiving: the smells, the colors, the smells, the foods of fall (apple cider donuts, anyone?), and that general sense that the work of the year is done and we got through it. We can think about Christmas, but it's not worried thinking.

So, before I get caught up in the frenzy of tricks or treats, I am wishing you and your loved ones a blessed harvest season. Enjoy the fragile beauty of fall. And, please, if you run onto one, eat a caramel apple for me!

Happy Wednesday

Still not much going on. Not much stitching wise, at least. I'm still plugging away at my Christmas ornament. I hope to have it done by this weekend. Actually, I hoped to have it done by last weekend, but I was busy last week and it didn't get accomplished. This is life, right? I even wanted to take WIP photos, but didn't have time yesterday. But I don't have much left to do. Friday night, I'm searching for fabric for it. I think if I go with a woodsy plaid, maybe a plaid flannel, that would be cute.

Has anyone else noticed the really great freebies that are out there all of a sudden? It's like the designers are giving us early Christmas presents! Or are they early adult stitching trick or treat gifts? Suzanne sent me a great link to Primitivebetty's freebies, which I love. They are on my list, and I'm already trying to figure out if they would be better as little pillows for on our coat hooks or as pillow ornaments. Thanks Suzanne for the link to the welcome additions to my stash for next year's stitching.

After I get this ornament finished and a quilt square for a sick acquaintance finished, I'm back to my UFO stitching. I've picked out my project, a Forever Friends project from an old Cross Stitch Quick and Easy (I miss that magazine, does anyone else?). I think it became a UFO because I apparently robbed a skein of the Anchor floss for another project. I think I even know which project it was--Summer Ball. I know why I did it; I don't find pulling floss in a store to be that much fun, and wanted to have to pull as little as possible, so I robbed myself and that project has lingered. But it's time to get it finished. They're cute lil bears and I'm ready to finish them! And I no longer do this sort of thing, since both Needlecraft Corner and 123Stitch carry Anchor and will pull the floss colors and ship them. Makes it so much easier.

And how was YOUR weekend?

Mine was rather . . . disjointed.

I hadn't had my nails done in 4 weeks and my left thumbnail lifted like crazy, so I was up and out of the house bright and early for a nail appointment. She did do a really good job shaping them. She even put a spider on my ring fingers, which, to be frank, looks like a ghost doing jumping jacks under a chandalier, but I'm not complaining because she said she'd never done a spider before. And my nails were in such bad shape that anything on them was better than running around like I had been. It's hard to stitch with a lifted acrylic nail, and the little paranoid voice in my head that fears fungus was starting to yell, "There is MOLD under that nail, and water and fungus will grow, and your finger will fall off," just a tad bit louder.

I also went for our Halloween candy. We get so many trick or treaters, it's not funny, and I think I have the biggest kid of them all, at least when it comes to candy. He has a little pumpkin container I keep stocked through the year with goodies. And he was eagerly anticipating new goodies this year. Earlier this week, he picked out the Airheads left over from last year and sent them to my father, who loves them (why we did not do this in, say, November, I don't know) so there is room in the pumpkin. And made requests for Sweettarts. So I stocked up. I even found the most divine pumpkin spice Kisses. OMG. And some bouncy balls. The kids freaked over Play-doh last year, so I think this will be as much fun. I admit freely to bouncing a ball in the house on Saturday.

Of course, I intended us to not eat any of the candy until Saturday. So, I should have known better than to open up the bags with the intention of mixing some up for my mom to give her trick or treaters--she gets maybe 20, so it really is a waste for her to get a lot of candy. But I did. And then watched DF go crazy with it. He taste tested the Sweettarts and apparently found them to be so yucky he must eat them before the children get to them :). Then, later, when I was downstairs, watching the Travel Channel and stitching, he crept down with the 100-piece bag of candy bars. I said to him, "Please make sure you leave some for the children on Saturday." He told me he'd buy more. He is actually planning on going to BJs to get the full-size bags, or at least he says. I think I can safely say I'll be at Walmart on Friday night, replenishing.

I had to work yesterday, while he went to the pumpkin patch. He brought me a white pumpkin for pretty on the porch and a big green and orange one to carve. He said his family was suitably impressed with our large bag o' candy. They can't believe we get that many trick or treaters. We do! I left instructions for our niece and nephews to get their own bouncy balls, which they did and were happy with. MIL was drooling over my stitched decorations, most of which I didn't stitch. This is probably why they're so cute!

I do have to post pictures of the cute things I got in exchanges this year. I got the most adorable bat ornament, and a gorgeous Halloween pillow came from the Sanman board Hallo-Fall exchange. SO cute! I love them, and they take pride of place with my Halloween decorations. Oh, and I seem to have finally rounded up the last of those from Mom's. I brought home a candy dish, a ceramic trio of chipmunks, and a wall plaque that I didn't even know I had--DOH! So now it will all be centralized and we can enjoy it!