Holiday Stitching Update!

I love this time of year for stitching ... no rushing off to work in the evenings, no after school sports practices, no meetings ... means I get EVERY evening, plus some afternoons for stitching - I love it!

Here are some progress pictures, mostly from the last week or so -

Celtic Summer - I've stitched this the last few days over Christmas etc ... I can't finish the cotton stitching yet because I still haven't organised the beads LOL ... I think I'm going to change them to Delica beads because I used hand-dyed 32ct so I'm pretty sure the required ones just won't fit and Katrina has assured me the Delicas are wonderful :)



Mirabilia RR - I joined this RR months ago and am only just now getting around to organising my stitching - and it's due to be sent next week! Eeek! ... I've decided on a fairy theme and I've drawn and cut out working copies of 40x100 parts of the fairy, making sure the face and some of the wings shows on each one. This is my piece - Adia ... I haven't got the krienks or the beads (well I probably have got some of the beads, I haven't looked, I'm still trying to decide whether to have everyone add the beads or not, or leave it until it gets back and I'll wash it and then add the beads - my preferred way of doing Mirabilias anyway). So here is Adia - minus the glittery parts! (I think I will just backstitch each section with a gold metallic).



and lastly, I started Faery Tales (heck I'm crazy ... I had the fabric, so figured, why not! - wow, it is a huge piece of fabric though LOL).



I'm trying the parking method ... and so far I've only had to use two colours, which is actually quite nice I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm slowly :)

As for Christmas activities - we had a fabulous time - Christmas Day we keep it pretty low key, just our family - we open all the Santa things (the smaller things in this house), sit around and relax a while, make a lovely brunch - including having the table more festive ... then clean up (about the only time of year the kids are enthusastic about helping! LOL) and then open our other gifts. One of the traditions we've started in the last couple of years is the kids putting their names in a hat and each one draws one out - we give them $10 each to buy that person a gift - it works really well, and I hope it is something they carry on as adults :) ... it's fun watching them enjoy seeing the thing they bought being opened ... and hopefully realising that the giving part is just as important, and feels just as good, as the receiving - we try anyway ;)

Deb and Jim and Deb's parents (Aunty Betty and Uncle Gus) - DH's cousin and parents - came for a BBQ later in the afternoon, which was pretty nice and relaxed too - Deb and Betty LOVED their boxes :)

Boxing Day my family gets together - I have 7 siblings, so it's a pretty big get together now! I organised it so we could use the soccer clubrooms this year - the "boys" (well, and a fair few of the girls, including mine of course!) enjoyed a great game of cricket on the cricket pitch next to the clubrooms and the littler kids could enjoy the playground while the rest of us adults could enjoy eating and drinking. I've got to say though, that as the years go on and the nieces/nephews get older, my siblings have less "little" children - it is becoming boozier and boozier, which, me not being the biggest drinker and knowing my parents don't drink at all, I'm not sure I like as much as in the previous years when we all had littler kids and it was more about family ... it IS still great to get together and things always change, but I suppose it just feels a bit sad.

Today we are off to start the 1000 piece Christmas puzzle Santa left for the family and probably off to the beach this afternoon ... then back to Faery Tales this evening - although I really should start back on my sister's Wedding gift ... and I've got to check the post box later to see if my Christmas Elf has arrived ...