Needle down, work basket retired for the year ...

Here are my final 'finishes' for 2015.

The little bear is a freebie from the DMC site.

I changed the floss colours.

So - I have now finished everything on my 2015 stitching 'to do' list. The plan is to take my work basket upstairs to my craft room, pack away the floss and fabric, and take a break from stitching for the rest of the month.  I may get out the floss for "Christmas Dreams" and put it onto the floss cards, and perhaps put the fabric on the frame - in fact, it's likely that I will. It's 41 months since I last worked on a HAED (my first).  Ironically, that's just 1 month shorter than the length of time that it took me to stitch it.  I am quite excited to start another HAED - and  also quite frightened, since I still have clear  memories of the sleepless nights spent huddled over the floor-frame, and the compulsion to just finish this thread/section/page/etc.  I have more  than a touch of OCD when it comes to my stitching! But the pleasure I get from the sight of my completed Jolly Old Fellow more than makes up for the pain I felt while working on it, and I hope the same will hold for Christmas Dreams.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my Christmas house. I'm starting with the upstairs landing - this is what you would see if you stood at my open front door and looked upwards.

My life-size Santa carries a cross-stitched 'Welcome'.

The Christmas Tree on the Singer table is an Advent Calendar of my own design - each star has a Santa painted on the reverse, and each day in December I turn over a star to reveal the Santa.  As you can see, I took this photo before Dec 1. The framed cross stitch is by Donna Vermillion - Portrait of Santa.

These are some of my favourite Christmas ornaments (most of the Santas are Vermillion designs). They're hanging on the linen press door.