Finishing up 2006

Here is my last finish for 2006:



It's "Christmas Duo" wreath ornament by M-Designs. Design taught at the 2006 PALS Fall Fling. 32ct linen in Moonglow from Picture This Plus with JAR Designs thread. Changed "Happy Holidays" to "Mother's Night". Approx. 6 hrs. to complete.

That makes a total of 21 conpleted projects for the year. Up from the 17 completetions of 2005. NO resolution to do more in 2007; just keep up the fun.

Speaking of resolutions: Mine for 2005 was to bring my cholesterol down below 200, and my weight down to 155. Starting of both on Jan.1 was Cholesterol 365, Weight 167.

I am happy to report my cholesterol was 171 at the beginning of September, thanks to diet change, exercise, and medication (darn heretige). My weight as of 5 minutes ago is 156!

2007 resolutions:
I will continue to exercise and eat right.
I will focus more on cleaning and organizing my house.

Edit: I realized I had a couple of stitchy resolutions. One is to continue to take part in the 50 project challenge. The other is to take part in Sharon's "Take a Stitch Tuesday" challenge; I'm looking forward to learning new stitches on this.

Bakers Dozen RR update

Here is the latest finish on a round robin, to be mailed out tomorrow. "Kitten and Teddy" from Stoney Creek Collection: Cat's Meow.

The food was GOOOOOOOOOOD!

The Yuletide season has been good and busy. I spent all last week baking; I lost track of how much after 6 Poppyseed/Nut rolls and all the cookies. The Spritz cookies didn't turn out great, as I broke the cookie press half way through the batch, and cut circles with the rest of the dough. My mom and I are arguing oer whose cookie press it is; she says it's mine and I let her borrow it. I can't remember if I bought it for her as a present or if I bought it for me and gave it to her when her's died, or if I let her borrow it. Doesn't matter; it still needs replacing. Hopefully I can order just the part that it broken instead of getting a whole new one. But then again, some of the newer models look nifty!

I was right earlier, we were only able to get one present each for the four of us, but luckily Sata-Grandma sent over bags of presents for the kids (and a couple for me and J too). She filled up my trunk and backseat with presents, and there is still more under her tree. She's visiting her and her hubby's parents this Christmas, so there will be Christmas in January at her house. There was some presents that she wants to see the kids faces when they open them.

I, personnally, didn't get a whole lot of stuff, and only one stash item, which I bought for myself. It was JCS 2006 Christmas Ornaments issue. As it is part of my exception list AND bought with gift money (my bonus from work), I have not broken the challenge. Other stuff I got:
-2nd season of Stargate-SG1 (I gave hubby the 3rd season; we co-ordinated on this)
-kitchen gadgets (silicon cupcake pan, bread pan, and cookie mats, a NICE chef knife, adjustable spoon measures, color co-ordinated cutting boards to avoid cross contaminating)
-a chocolate vanilla mocha bath set (I have a feelign the kids will end up with the bubble bath, as there is no tub in my bathroom, but the shower gel and spongey thing is mine!)
-Lavender eye pillow
-book on Celtic History: from pre-history to the Norman invasions
-a local cookbook that hubby's aunt helped put together. bonus here is there are several recipes of hubby's grandma in here, as well as lots of passed down german recipes
-couple of decorative baskets with potporri (amazingly matches my bathrooms. that was coincidence)
-chip&dip set

Much of this was "addressed" to both me and hubby; mostly everything that can be used in the kitchen, as we both COOK.

Last Friday we had my family and friends over for Yule; the spread was glorious, if I do say so myself. Turkey with sausage stuffing (we would have had goose, but couldn't find one big enough), warm german potatoe salad, latkes, carrots in beer, broccoli, clover rolls, and honey oatmeal bread. With all the baking, I'm glad I stole..um, I mean, borrowed my mom's new KitchenAid mixer. It won't be stollen until I tell her that I'm not giving it back. Besides, she won't miss it until she goes to make cookies next Christmas, right?

A much better day with a finish

I just finished putting the last backstitch in an ornament for my son. He picked it out and asked me to change the colors to red, yellow, orange and blue. Red and blue are his favorite colors, but I'm not sure where yellow and orange came from (he is 4). Here it is!


Is it me? Or does he look...embarrassed?
It is "Sadie Snowflake" by Imaginating, Inc., from JCS Christmas Ornaments: 10th Anniversary Collection. On 14 ct White Aida with DMC floss.

Outlook on life has taken a turn for the better. Probably because I don't go back to work until December 27 and then I only work two days that week. All this is thanks to vacation time and holidays.

New finish, Christmas bonus', and general ^@$!%

The good news.
I finished the ornament my daughter picked this year.

"Snow Kitty" by Cross My Heart, INC. from JCS Christmas Ornaments: 10th Anniversary Collention. 28ct Ice Blue Alma with DMC and Kreinik floss.

The other good news.
The company I work for actually gave me a Christmas bonus this year of $250. Considering this is the first one from them I've gotten in the 7 years I've worked for the company, not a bad sum. It sure beats the Bic pens one manager gave out one year to some of his underlings. The sucky part is I will be taxed on this, the the tax coming out of my paycheck (And all US citizen know, we get taxed 55-60% on "gifts" like this). Seriously bites.

As if money isn't tight in my house right now as it is; it looks like I'll have to use this "gift" to but the kids present for Yule. Hubby and I talked and we'll get the kids one or two really special things from Santa, but anything else will wait until the middle of January, when we celebrate with my mom (whose out of town visiting her parents this year, so she's having Christmas for the grandkids when she gets back in January).

I love my husband, and I love that he found something that he loves doing. But not paying bills on time and not being able to do little things like get something for the kids, really stress me out and ticks me off. I'm working my ass off (and my hands into disability) at job I hate, and still looks like I'll have to go find a forth job just to make ends meet.

I saw the orthopedist for my hands last week and she tells me I now have arthritis in the right one. Frickin' great. I can understand my knee and ankle. I injured those a lot of times in sports when I was younger. But my hand! I'm 33 and this should NOT have happened! And it's not like I can take some disability time off for it to heal...then the bills really wouldn't get paid.

Where, Oh where did my stitch-ing go....

Stitching is at a minimum for me now, with hubby out of town. I've decided me and the kids are going to be doing some "holiday" claening this weekend, and see if we can't get the tree and decorations up. Maybe even make some cookies for Santa, because "Santa like me to make the cookies the best!" (quoted from my son).

Considering I saw someone taking down some of the sign we put up to find the hamster's owner (it wasn't a goverment/state/county official), by leaving the lost dogs signs alone, I'm guessing the original owner is not going to claim her. I'm still leavign the rest of the signs up until Sunday, then I'll let the kids know we're keeping her. As if they aren't already treating her like she's ours. I've officially named her Queen Cobra (see previous blogs and pictures as to why). Q.C. for short; pronounce it similar to cutie.
She has spent most of her time in her new home sleeping, only waking up if we put something in her habitat. At first she was 'stashing' her food, covering with a thin layer of shavings, then pooping on it; I'm assuming to make sure noone took her food. Over the past couple of days, we've been giving her fresh vegetables, cabbage and carrots. Up until last night, she'd grab it as soon as we set it down (wouldn't come near our hands) and take it to where she slept and "hide" it. Last night, however, she took the piece of carrot from my daughter's hand, then after we all left the room, Q.C. dug up her entire stash and put it in her food bowl. She has also moved her toilet corner to the opposite side of the tank, away from her food and sleeping space. Although she still flinches when we try her touch her, she will now come over to our hand's to sniff us. This weekend will be interesting when we need to remove her to clean out the tank, but she'll get a ball to run around the house in, hopefully it will help get her used to the place.