Your chances just increased

Hello people!  I'm feeling generous.  I am thrilled that 50+ of you would like my box, and encouraged enough to think seriously about Etsy.  So how about super sizing it?

I used the same two designs and put them on a 6" x 6" box.  I will use the generator at Random.org for the winner, and also draw a second time for the original offer of the 4" box.  If you're the winner and prefer the small box, that's fine.   The pear will be included with the first prize, along with a few dried citrus.  Don't you wish there was some stitchy stuff inside?  Well there isn't so don't get your hopes up. 

I was also informed that the pear will not make it into Australia which I didn't know.  I guess the box is all I can send since even the dried oranges are not allowed.   I don't know if other countries will accept but we'll find out.   I'll try to find something that I can include instead of the pear should the winner be lucky enough to reside in Australia.   Many of you are "no-reply" so be sure to check back for the winner.   Today, 11 pm EST!   I'll post by midnight.  Have a great day everyone.

Offering update

Hello everyone.  I've decided to give the winner of my offering a choice of boxes.  You can choose from the house design I showed earlier...

or if you are an Adam & Eve lover, this design...

The round boxes are painted a dark brown, aged, and are 4" high and 4" across.  I will draw from the names at 11:00 pm Eastern time on Friday night.  Hopefully I can get an address Saturday morning and get it in the mail before the post closes at noon.   Don't forget - the pear will be inside! 

Another tree!  This is jingle bells and dried orange slices, with dried whole oranges lying on the branches.  I think the last tree (still waiting for its lights) will be all lights and rusty, brown, and gray jumbo jingle bells.  

 I didn't get the scanner working to post the Woodlawn piece, but wanted to give the deadline for the pear box.  Make sure you leave your request on THIS POST.  Yes, the box originally shown was mustard but I wasn't happy with it and since it's still my box, I changed the color.  Good luck!  Remember, Friday night at 11:00 pm EST. 

I also wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful comments on my mantel.  I added more stitched Santa pillows in the greenery and it looks even better. 

To answer your emails, Margaret stitched her PS on the recommended 18 count Davos over one.  I always did mine on my standard 28 count over two, but really like this look so I will be using the 18 count on future designs.  Unfortunately, I included all my 18/19 count Cork linen with the charts for my EBay sale.  All gone.  Never thought I would have a need for it!!  The Christmas cushion from Carol (Sampler Farmer) is a design from Country Rustic Primitives.  Nice stuff.   It's stitched on "mink" which may be discontinued.  That's typical.  If I didn't give it away, sell it, or burn it, it's discontinued.

That's it folks!  I'll be back the end of the week.  Stay safe!

Christmas came early

Hello everyone.  I received two gifts of stitchery today and am absolutely thrilled.  As soon as I got them, the mantel decoration became perfectly clear....

Margaret surprised me with this Prairie Schooler ornament that I recently saw featured on her Sampler of Stitches blog.   This wonderful design fits perfectly in my collection, and I am thrilled with him!  Beautiful backing, a little jingle bell, and perfect finishing.  Thank you Margaret! 

This Christmas cushion was also a surprise from another friend and I am speechless at the generosity of stitchers.   The weight and feel is new to me and I'm assuming it's walnut shells (of which I have a large bag that has been hiding for quite some time).

The backing fabric is perfectly matched to the linen and thread and stitched all the way around with those X's that we all love.  I don't know what I did to deserve such fabulous treasures from you girls.  I'm really touched and can't tell you how much I appreciate your gifts.   Thank you thank you thank you.

My mantel is now a showing of Santas and stitcheries.  I had small pieces here and there and decided to group them after opening my mail today.  I love the way it looks!

And believe it or not, I bought another tree.  I happened to spot this at my local craft store in a 4' but didn't want to spend $50 so I passed.  And there, way up on the top shelf, was a 3' version for $25!  The branches are so stiff, perfect for heavier ornaments, and the needles are pretty stiff too.  There are several branches on each limb so you can pull them out for a little fullness, or not.  I'm drawn to these because I like the look of the tree itself, even without adornments.  Not sure if I am keeping it - I have several this size.                                                                                                                                My other simple tree now has lights round the trunk only and all tin and pewter ornaments.  Not sure about the lights, but I am wiring each ornament securely, putting it in a large bag, and next year I only have to open the bag and plug it in.   The siliconed light strings are on the little fat trees.  I've tired of my traditional and shiny ornaments and tried different themes this year.

  I have a sampler chart from the Woodlawn Collection I want to start and would like to show that and the problems I will have right from the beginning.   Next time.  I  need to post the date for the drawing so I will be posting again in a day or two. 
Thanks for reading - talk to you soon!

Offering!

Hi everyone. I want to post that I am having an offering. Remember a few months ago, I showed journals and a box with a sampler snippet, wondering if I should try selling a few. Well this is one of them. It's a small 4" round painted box with a print of a sampler piece, and the cloved pear shown sitting on its lid will be inside.

If you would like this little pear box, just leave a comment here.  If you are "no-reply", please make sure to check back after the drawing date since I won't be able to reach you. I just decided to do this and haven't thought ahead.   I'm not sure what today is, so I can't tell you the date it will end, but it will be the end of this week.  I'll let you know exactly when next time!

No tree rockets.....yet

Hiya people.  I started decorating and realized that my patience erodes a little more with each passing year.   Surely a 100 teeny light string on a 3' tree should be manageable.  I really like this little guy and he's a newbie, so I didn't position into my throwing stance, or even threaten to.  The family room tree's lights are never removed so I only have to hang ornaments, and I noticed several burned bulbs which can be replaced.   I'm tired of the same old ornaments, and this decorating that I look forward to each year is becoming more tedious than fun.  Age?  Style change?  Laziness?  Whatever the reason, I am putting out less every year and preferring greenery, stitched pieces, dried naturals, and tin.   My feather style trees aren't even getting lights.   I love the big beautifully lit and dressed trees, but I can't seem to handle the task.  My mantel changed several times, I gave my sister most of the ornaments, and one 5' tree still needs lights.   My front door bough is now one branch instead of several, and the buckets of greens are gone.  This is the mantel today, but it probably won't be tomorrow.  The artificial will be replaced with live greens that are sitting in buckets of water in the garage.

 I used my little Schooler Santas and I already feel too cluttered and need to remove them and some of the fruit.   

I put the newly stained ornaments on a wreath in my small kitchen and my husband said he gives them a day before they're gone.  He's probably right.  They will end up on the tree.

One of the doctors I worked for gave everyone an ornament from Wendell August Forge each year, and the managers received a plate.  They have such beautiful items and now have jewelry also.  I thought it was a great idea for an office staff - not too expensive, everyone gets the same, and the longer you work the bigger your collection!  The back is stamped with the design name and year.  Check out their site if you need a gift.  They have ornaments with Bible verse, religious themes, angels, snowmen, Santas, military, baby, you name it.  Excellent selections.

Finally, I have this framed stitched piece that is displayed every year and I am growing tired of it also, even though the design and stitches are so sweet.   Love those big hips.  I still have this chart if someone would like it.   Just email and let me know.

That's it.  I'm done.  I wanted to show a few new charts but I can't find them, nor can I remember what I really wanted to post about.  I figured it would come to me when I started typing ...... ain't happening.  Next time I'll make a note.  I have tablets everywhere that do me no good without the pen, and I would misplace the note anyway so why bother?   Flashes have been really bad again and now my eyebrows are sweating.  My EYEBROWS.  I need them tattooed since the waterproof pencil can't even stay on. 

So have a great weekend everyone and if menobrain gets in gear, I'll post again with whatever the hell it was that I was posting about to begin with. 

Stay safe!  Thanks for visiting!

Whew.

Hello everyone!  I'm finally finished with the EBay sales and everything is shipped.  What a disaster here.  The shipping supplies and paperwork are put away and the rest of the charts are being recycled or burned.  Selling 75 cross stitch items within a week was a stupid thing to do but it's done.  All the Klostern is gone!  All the Cork linen is gone!  All the ceramic Bush buttons are gone!  If it didn't interfere with postal weight I added a few bonus charts to get rid of them.  A few that I think are beautiful Santas did not get a bid for $1 and those were Alma Lynn's.  Some Shepherd's Bush samplers didn't go either which surprised me.

Now I can get the ornaments on the trees and finish up decorating.  I found my Lydia Hinckley sampler.  Red Santa will hopefully show up tomorrow.  I throw everything in one room when ridding clutter so I'm confident he's there.  Green Santa is sewn and I wanted to show a few pictures of ornaments that I stitched many many years ago on a light sage Aida. 

I have a few large Prairie Schoolers done on the same fabric.  I decided they needed a change so .... you guessed it....I stained them!   I used very strong coffee and dabbed with a soaked cloth.  I made sure I saturated the white beards first with water on a cotton swab.  I avoided them with the coffee and again flushed with a water soaked cotton swab to dilute after staining.  I like the difference and plan on doing the whole lot tomorrow.

The velvet hangers will be changed to hemp or homespun strips.   The small Santas are from Prairie Schooler's book #20, St. Nicholas.  Required fabric is 24 count cottage brown Heartland, which I found stashed in the leaflet.  Love the feel and color of that fabric which I may one day use to re-stitch them.  As for the Santas I finished and had in the bowl, I tried the garland idea....

I don't like it and I think I will just place them among the greenery on the mantel.  

Another little tree, this time a short cheap one that I hacked up.  It started out as a regular fully branched tree.  I used wire cutters and removed every other section, wrapped brown electrical tape around the trunk to hide the amputations, and will go over that tape with either brown matte floral tape, or a small brown print homespun strip.

Here's the Green Santa (without the brown jingle bell corners as of yet) from BOAF and I made a decision about the next finish.   If you notice the bottom, it's not very smooth and this is my biggest problem now when finishing.  Whether I hand sew or glue, I can't get a good line.  I stick a long needle into the backing and use it to move filling to the seam edge but it never comes out as nice as the other edges.  So.  I plan on machine stitching all four edges, using an envelope overlap on the backing.   Doing contrasting X's (Nash style) over the flap would be a nice touch, or a few dabs of glue would work too.  How easy will that be!  Access to all seams and corners for perfect edges and even filling.  

 Lydia Hinckley.  Short and sweet.  I missed out on a few sampler graphs that sold out on Scarlet Letter's sale.  She is still having a 50% off sale on selected graphs and kits so get your orders in before they're gone.  I totally missed Essamplaire's sale.   My list (lists) of charts to purchase is still missing, hoping it's in the mess room. 

 I went to my seamstress today with a jacket, and forgot the jacket.  Maybe I was flustered because I was trying to start the car with the house key.  And yesterday was very very strange.  I started crying in the car.  Don't know why, and it was very hard to control.  It was four years ago on December 1 that they took mom from my home for the final time, but I know when the tears are for her.  For an unknown reason, the day before, I had a flashback to 30 years ago.  I have claustrophobia which is why I can't go underwater.  It's like putting a plastic bag on your head to me.  Panic.  But as I laid at the pool on vacation in Florida, some odd colors or reflections on the water caught my eye .  I stood up and saw huge eyes and tiny little hands reaching up at the bottom of the pool.  I jumped in and grabbed the baby.  No one even knew he was gone and until they heard his choking screams, I had no idea who he belonged to.  They didn't speak English, took him from me, and moved on.  For some reason, this came flooding back and I don't know what, if any, connection this had to my crying jag. 

And finally, here's Junior.  You can see in these pics how he is a clone of his dad.  They both have white sandals on front paws and white boots on the back, same chest and throat markings.

Whoops! 

 Hit the publish button by mistake.  I had more but I guess that will be saved for another day.  Thank you for visiting!  Have a great week!